In The Line of Fire
by Quitethefangirl
Summary: Eric is missing. On top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric, they are put under administrative review by IAB. T for violence post 7x25 "Seeing Red".
1. How Death Taxes Us

**T****itle****:** In The Line of Fire**  
**

**Timeline: **7x25 "Seeing Red_**"  
**_

**Author:** Quitethefangirl

**Genre:** Angst/Crime_**  
**_

**Summary:** Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

**Author Note:** This is my first attempt at fanfic, hope you like it. Please R&R

* * *

**Chapter 1**

** How Death Taxes Us**

Funerals, it was part of the job. Calleigh had attended so many funerals she lost count, funerals for friends, funerals for family, funerals for colleagues, funerals for victims from a case, always paying her respects with a solemn look on her face. This one however was different. She couldn't shake the guilt; it consumed her mind and pained her soul, she blamed herself and had abandoned all hope, slowly letting it sink in. Eric was gone.

She stood between Ryan and Horatio, grief-stricken and tear running down her faces as the pallbearer made their way to the grave. They place the flag draped coffin over the grave and retreated back, somebody stepped forward, folded the flag then walking over and handing it to the family. A weeping woman accepted the flag then hugging her two children close.

She was the widow of the officer Elton Brenner, the latest fatality as a result of the Russian mob's gun heist gone wrong, he had died three days ago due to a critical head injury, a result of hitting the pavement too hard after he was shot. He had stayed in the hospital in critical condition for a week and a half, before his wife, Mrs. Brenner took him off life support after the doctor's told her there was nothing they could do.

In the funeral service the widow spoke. She said although he was gone, she was glad she had got the chance to say goodbye, holding his warm hand as he exited the world. It had offered her closure knowing that in the end he didn't die alone, but in the arms of the ones he loved.

Although Calleigh didn't know Elton very well, only working with him a few times before he died, the words tore Calleigh apart inside. As the coffin was lowered into the ground her mind drifted to Eric, he had been left for dead, bleeding out all alone with no one to help him. A sob escaped and she hung her head, hoping not to drawn attention to herself causing Ryan to wrap an arm around her knowing who was on her mind. It had been two week since Eric had gone missing.

There had been extensive searches in both the water and the surrounding area, but Eric or any trace of him hadn't been found. The first week the team stayed optimistic, speculating that it was a kidnapping hoping to receive a ransom any day but received nothing. The second week the team's hope began to die and as they were trained to do they thought the worst, all but Calleigh. Everyone tried their best to remain optimistic in her presence, but she saw through their façade. Their faith was going.

Today her last thread of hope had withered away; she had to face facts, she couldn't live in denial anymore. As soon as the funeral ended, she walked off to be alone, standing by the bank of a pond, teary eyed and staring off to the distance in deep thought, when Ryan approached her.

"Calleigh, you ok?" he asked

She stood for a moment in silence, back turned to him then she began nodding her head.

"Yeah, I'm ok" she whispered, turning to face him. "I just have to learn to let him go" her teary eyes meet his "He'd want that".

Ryan walked up to join her on the bank, putting his arm around her shoulder again, as they both stood together in silence, trying to accepting the unthinkable.

* * *

**And that's the first chapter hope you enjoyed it - Quitethefangirl**


	2. Shot

**T****itle****:** In The Line of Fire**  
**

**Timeline: **7x25 "Seeing Red_**"  
**_

**Author:** Quitethefangirl

**Genre:** Angst/Crime_**  
**_

**Summary:** Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

**Author Note:** I'd like to thank everyone who read and/or reviewed the first chapter, it really does feel great to read the reviews and know people are reading my words. I also like to thank my beta reader Emily for "beta"ing my story making presentable to the public. Anyways, this is not a awards ceremony so enjoy the new chapter, please R&R thank you.

* * *

**Chapter 2  
**

** Shot**

**Two weeks earlier **

Calleigh didn't know what was worst. Not knowing or the fact that this was her fault?

She had lost many comrades and danced with death on a daily basis. It was risk that came with the job, but this was Eric and not knowing whether he was alive or dead was slowly killing her.

She had shot him, it had been her fault. The last words she said to him were words in anger; she had doubted him and mistrusted him. With all her might she had hoped she'd missed him, but she know she was a good shot, she never missed and always hit her target.

Calleigh pulled her hummer swiftly in the Glades; barely stopping the car before jumping out, scarcely able to breathe. She bolted as fast as her could towards the direction of Horatio and Frank, the images of shooting Eric flashing through her mind.

Frank stood and Horatio was knelling over someone, guns drawn. As she got closer she saw it was Sharova, he was alive, lying on the ground blood staining his shirt. A quick scan of the area confirmed Eric was nowhere in sight, panic seizing her.

"It's not my blood" she heard Sharova as she closed in on them.

"Whose blood is it? Is it Eric?" She cut with in a panicked breathless voice.

Sharova looked up at Calleigh, they're eyes meet his eye filled shame and guilt and his lips trembled.

"What happened" Horatio asked in a pressing but calm voice.

"He was getting me out, before I committed a crime" his words were pained and labored.

"Was he hit? Did I hit him?" Calleigh asked in a steady but frantic tone.

"All I know he was bleeding, he kept driving and then" he paused and continued in a more heavily labored and pained voice "he lose control of the car" he voice cracked "that's all I know" he shook his head slightly. Calleigh put her hands to her face in worry.

"If anything happened to him, you to get what your friends got" Horatio said in a dead tone.

"Get up, your under arrest" Frank said pulling Sharova roughly to his feet and handing him off to a pair of waiting officers and walked to his car. Horatio stood and put his gun back in his holster, pulling out his shades.

"If he's not in the car, where is he?" Calleigh said in the strongest voice she could muster, her legs felt as if they were going to give way. She swallowed hard and mentally chanted _"Don't cry, stay professional"_ in her head.

"We'll find him Calleigh" Horatio answered, turning toward her and looking off across the water, shades in hand. She shook her head as tears form in her eyes, finding little comfort in the lieutenant's words trying her best not to breakdown in front of Horatio.

"We can't lose him" She offered a weak smile, tears in her eyes and a knot in her throat.

He turned his back to her and tilted his head focusing on something in the distance. "I'm not going to let that happen." He left Calleigh to follow a trail of footprints left in the grass.

She stood there alone for a second, choking back tears. Horrible thoughts raced though her mind

"_Killed him it was my fault, I killed Eric, My God I killed him."_

But this was a crime scene, they had to process it; she went to follow Horatio with a distraught look on her face. She couldn't breathe, she felt as if all the air was being sucked from her lungs, again. _"I'm so sorry, Eric?"_ was the only clear thought in her chaotic and confused mind _"I'm so sorry"_

Like a whirlwind taking a city, her tears over took her and she succumbed to her emotions that hit her like a tidal wave. She had never felt so alone. In the past she learned to never get emotional involved with a case, it always leaded to trouble. She'd learned that the hard way, but this wasn't just another case, this was Eric. This was the man she loved, she couldn't stop the pain.

Ever since she was a child she'd built a walled around her heart, locking all her true feeling inside, never letting anyone see her weak or afraid. She had worked hard to keep her personal and professional feeling separate and her emotions at bay. It gave her a sense of certainty, stability and control, something she lacked earlier on in her life.

She was known as an optimist, she was rarely seen as anything but happy. She always tried to finding the silver lining of the cloud, some people said she was "too cheerful" in her line of work. She always wore a smile even when she felt otherwise. Her smile lit up the lab and even the grimiest of crime scene.

At work, her collogues know the professional, stoic, witty, committed, gun loving, ballistic expert Calleigh they worked with everyday, her acquaintances and the team knowing the sweet, talkative, lighthearted, humorous southern belle Calleigh they sometimes spent the weekends and nights after work with. The Calleigh she wanted them to know, the Calleigh she was now. She faced much adversity in life, things she was too ashamed, afraid or embarrassed to admit, things that would change the way they looked at her. She didn't want pity; she had had enough of that for one lifetime.

To her younger colleagues she was a listening ear, a confidant now more than ever with Alex gone. She kept them in check when their emotions got the best of them, when Eric got hot-headed or when Natalia was overly emotional and when Ryan was well just Ryan. She knew their background, their fears, their story, their struggles and problems. Whenever she saw her colleagues troubled, she'd pry until they let it out, whether it was personal or professional problem she'd help them through it, carrying the burden with them. She let them know they didn't have to struggle alone, but when they extended the same offer to her; she'd just brush them away and said she was fine.

However there were only a few snips they'd managed to learn about her background over the years, things she wasn't able to hide. Her unstable childhood, complicated family life, her father's alcoholism, her rocky relationships with men, but never the details, those subjects were personal.

They didn't know the real Calleigh, not like Eric did. He'd been working the hardest and longest to bring down those walls down and boy was he persistent. She always had a special place in her heart for him since the day they first meet, he knew her like no other and he was her best friend.

He saw right through the false smiles and the "I'm fines" he would never take no for an answer. He had never forced her to talk about her past or anything she wasn't comfortable with, but being around Eric the walls would automatically come down, letting out a different side of Calleigh people rarely saw and before she know it she was opening up to him, telling him her secrets and troubles, things no one else know. He never judged her. He made a point of being there when she needed him, listening. He loved her; he'd find whatever way possible to show her that, even when she felt she didn't deserve it.

Through all the horrible incidents she faced over the recent years, the breakups, the kidnapping, the off duty shooting, the car accident and the multiple attempts on her life. He was always there, offering a hand to hold, a warm embrace, a shoulder to cry on and words of reassurance, comforting her and making it all better. He was her strong tower, her best friend and most importantly he was the love of her life. She had finally accepted her feelings, it was the best thing ever she'd done.

The feelings had always been there, but she was too afraid and didn't know how to convey them, her relationships with men always ended badly. She didn't want to hurt the strong bond she shared with him, she loved Eric too much to lose him. So she just danced around the feelings, hiding behind her security blanket. It wasn't until the first time she thought she lost him when he was almost deported, she saw how much she cared about him.

She noticed how much time she wasted; she'd rather risk loving him than then never knowing and regretting it. She told him this with a kiss, it was the best decision she'd made in her entire adult life.

The past few months with Eric had been like a breath of fresh air, they had the best months she had in a long time. They were inseparable, everyday their relationship growing stronger. She enjoyed every moment they spent together, whether it out on the town, her place or his, even at work when they could only offer a bright smile or a lingering gaze, she loved it. It was like a fairytale, but now it was over, now it was a nightmare, now he was gone, missing in action and she had no one to run to. Not only would she have to face this alone, she have to live with the guilt that she caused this, if anything happened to Eric she'd forever blame her self.

Her legs finally gave away and she fell to her knees not caring who was watching, she had spent too much time caring what others thought, but now she didn't care. The pain was too great; it felt like the world had crashed around her. She cried tear that were long overdue, she cried the hardest she ever cry had making up for all the times she held them back. Sobs wrench through her body, she felt so frail and fragile. She cried alone for what seemed like an eternity until she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Ma'am, we're going to find him. I won't rest until we find him, I promise." It was Horatio. She knew the tone of voice all too well; it was the voice he used to comfort the victim's family, giving them reassurance and hope. She knew he meant well, but it only filled her with more grief and she cried harder.

"I-I-I shot him" She managed through her tears.

"Shhh, it's going to be ok" he said to her. Horatio knelt beside his grief-stricken CSI, pulling her into his arms resting his head on hers, stroking her back, as a father would a daughter, hoping to sooth her. Horatio knew about the two, although Eric and Calleigh had hid their relationship from the team, he knew what Eric meant to Calleigh, he knew they were more than just colleagues. After a few minutes of crying into Horatio's shoulder, the tear subsided.

"Go home I'll call you if anything changes." He said. Normally Calleigh would protest, work always came first, but she didn't have the will or the stamina. She couldn't work this case, not now. Horatio helped her to her feet and walked her to her hummer; both unaware of all the shocked and slightly confused eyes that were gazing at them. Horatio opened the door to the passenger side and helped her into the seat. He placed one hand on her shoulder, looking her directly in the eyes, something he seldom did and said "We'll find him"

With that he walked away, calling over an officer to drive Calleigh to the lab. They rode back to the lab in silence, Calleigh's mind tangle in deep thought.

* * *

**OK I have a little bit of a dilemma I originally planned to write the story from Calleigh's point of view, but the more I wrote the more story started taking turns of its own.A new plot has been add and certain part of the story could be better told from other member teams' prospective. What do you think? Like the way its going now or would you like the change? **


	3. Missing

**T****itle****:** In The Line of Fire**  
**

**Timeline: **7x25 "Seeing Red_**"  
**_

**Author:** Quitethefangirl

**Genre:** Angst/Crime_**  
**_

**Summary:** Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

**Author Note: **Hey everyone, first and foremost I'd like to dedicate this chapter to Nikky's girl, thank you for your help and I look forward to working with you again. Secondly I went ahead and tried the story in a different point of view it was hard to write than I expected, hope you guys like it.

**

* * *

Chapter 3  
**

**Missing**

Horatio watched as Calleigh was driven off. Frank approached him and stood alongside him.

"Is she ok?" Frank asked.

"She will be," Horatio said looking down at ground. "How does it look, Frank?"

"Not good Horatio. Eric was in the car with Sharova and we don't know how involved he is in all of this. I'm going to take Colonel Sanders over there," motioning at Sharova in the squad car, "to the station and see if I can get anything out of him, but something tells me he's not going be to all chatty Cathy."

"I want to be there when you speak to him. Don't let anyone else question him, Frank. I'm taking this case; Eric is one of mine and I'm going to see this one through. We'll get him to talk"

Frank sighed. It was easier said than done, he knew as soon as they got to the station Stetler would be all over Sharova. Deeming the investigation to be run by an "unbiased" third party such as the IAB department, this was just the kind of thing Stetler had been waiting for to destroy the team.

"Horatio, PEople are going to be quick to call his guilt." Frank said expressing his concerns to Horatio.

"I'll deal with PEople." Horatio said harshly, catching Frank drift. For a second there was silence, both men taking in the delicate and difficult situation they were in. Then Frank spoke, voicing his concern.

"I can't help the feeling that we're missing something; something just isn't right about this. It's just not sitting right with me."

"Yeah, I know." Horatio quietly agreed, shaking his head after some hesitation. "But were going to find those missing pieces, 'cause that's what we do."

"So how are we gonna play this?" Frank said.

"Frank, we're going this the only way we know how." Horatio looked up and away. "We'll let the evidence show us." He said as he walked away.

Ryan sat in his hummer, taking a few deep breaths. He'd been a CSI for a couple of years now and processed many bloody and grotesque scenes, but this one was the first one he was scared to death to see. Eric was missing and could possibly be-, no he couldn't bring himself to think it. He didn't want to be here if they found a body. Just the thought made him sick to his stomach. He'd never lost a colleague that he was close to and Eric was (_is_ he corrected himself) like a brother to him.

He took a few more deep breaths, not wanting his cheeseburger to revisit him before he exited the vehicle. Kit in hand, he walked over to Horatio. The senior CSI stood surveying the area, his back turned to Ryan. Ryan lifted the police tape and walked under it, entering the scene.

"Hello Mr. Wolfe," Horatio said without turning to look at him. "Glad you could join us."

"Yeah," Ryan said, tensing. Horatio's words made him think his boss was referring to his hesitation in the car. "Sorry, I'm- I just- I needed to- um." Unable to explain the emotions that were running through him, he looked at Horatio, who was his normal calm self. He wondered how the man had become so emotionally calloused.

"Ryan, you don't have to explain yourself." He looked towards Ryan, putting his hand on the younger man's shoulder, "I understand"

Ryan looked back into Horatio's eyes and saw the man was not as emotionless as he seemed. His eyes were sad and dark. He was just as emotionally trodden as Ryan, but remained strong and maintained his poise. A trick he'd learned from facing countless heartache in his life; it was both a blessing and a curse.

"Yeah, but-" Ryan said warily.

"We're going to find him." Horatio cut him off, "Alive, I promise."

"Ok." Ryan tried to believe him. "What do you need me to do?" He quickly changed the subject before his feelings overtook him.

"I want you to take Eric's car to the lab to be processed," Horatio said seriously. "See what you can find. Anything from that car should be treated with the upmost cared and priority. I need you to be extra thorough; whatever you double checked check again. I need to know anyone who has ever been in that car. What happened and when it happened."

"Ok." Ryan agreed knowing the case was going to be very sensitive.

"The tow truck should be here any minute, don't let that car leave your sight, Ryan." Horatio added sternly.

"Will do, H." Ryan said as turned to walk towards Eric's car so he could process it.

"Mr. Wolfe," Horatio called, stopping Ryan in his tracks.

"Yeah" he turned his head to look at Horatio.

"Make sure Ms. Duquesne gets home safely." Horatio asked, "And don't let anyone talk to Sharova - especially her. This is hitting her pretty hard; she blames herself. I need her rested so she'll be able to function in the investigations."

Ryan noticed how Horatio stressed the word _investigations_ and there was an 's' on it, meaning plural. He wasn't just talking about Eric's investigation. He was warning Ryan that IAB was going to be running an investigation and Calleigh was in no state to talk to them, not yet. Ryan nodded knowingly.

"Now we begin." Horatio said walking off.

Shortly after walking away from Ryan, Horatio's phone rang. Looking at the caller I.D. it read Natalia Boa Vista. He answered it. "Ma'am," he greeted her. "Has the M.E retrieved Sarnoff's body, yet?"

"H, I'm at the location and we've found Gregor's body, but where you said Sarnoff should be there's no body." Natalia was worried.

"Impossible." He hissed, though his frustration was not aimed at Natalia. It was the fact Sarnoff had managed to slip from his grasp yet again. He'd shot him, point blank; the bullet going right through his chest. Yelina was his witness and he was sure he wasn't wearing a bullet proof vest. There was no way Sarnoff could have survived that. He raked his mind for a logical explanation, but none come.

"And Horatio there's more," Natalia said. "He left a note, well kind of." Then she went on to explain that though there was no dead body, there was still physical evidence that someone had indeed been shot. Where Horatio had said the body would be, there was a large pool of blood. No-one had cleaned it up. In fact, written in blood, that could or could not be Sarnoff's handwriting, was one word.

"Check." Natalia said. "That's it, it just says Check. Check what? Does that make any sense to you?" Natalia asked, confused.

"No, it doesn't," Horatio said, running his hand down the back of his head. 'Check,' it was such a vague word. It could mean so many things, but he didn't care enough to read into it; he had more pressing matters on his mind. He wasn't going to let this get to him.

"Natalia, find a trail and Follow it. See what direction he went and put a perimeter in place. He couldn't have gotten far and put a BOLO out on him. Armed and dangerous, Natalia, armed and dangerous."

"Will do, sir," she replied. She started to remove the phone from her ear, to end the call thinking he was done when he spoke again.

"And Natalia," He said in a hesitant voice, halting her actions.

"Yes, Sir."

"Be careful." He said before hanging up.

The day was starting to take its toll on him. He was two CSI's down and was his team was wearing thin. Each of them was assigned a task that needed urgent attention, so he was going to have to process this scene alone, until the rest of the team was available. Collecting his kit from the Hummer, it was time to work.

* * *

**Hope you like it R&R and I'll have the next chapter posted in the next few day - Quitethefangirl**


	4. Crossing Lines

**T****itle****:** In The Line of Fire**  
**

**Timeline: **7x25 "Seeing Red_**"  
**_

**Author:** Quitethefangirl

**Genre:** Angst/Crime_**  
**_

**Summary:** Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

**Author Note:** Although I should be finishing up my paper I decided to be nice and post this chapter for you, just for you. Ok this is totally random but the other day I was watching old episodes of Burn Notice and the guy who plays Ivan Sharnoff in CSI: Miami was in it. Like CSI: Miami, Burn Notice is set in Florida Miami-Dade area, too. Ironically enough the character he was playing was a member of the Russian mob and he name was Ivan, how weird is that.

* * *

**Chapter 4  
**

**Crossing Lines**

Eric woke up in a dark room, his body propped up against a corner of the walls. His mind immediately began thinking about how he had ended up there. He had involuntarily fallen trap to the Russians' game and it made him feel so foolish. He should have seen right though it, but it was his heroic traits that got the best of him. He was always being "the hero" and when given the chance, he was never reluctant.

But now he was in need of saving. His perfect plan had failed terribly. He went in with the purest of intentions, but managed to come out looking dirty – very dirty. Yes, that was how he ended up here, he finally remembered. It was the text from an anonymous number he received shortly after his heated dispute with Calleigh. It read:

1031 Grant

South Miami, FL

Park in the Loading Deck 5

Come alone now. I want out.

It was the address for The MDPD Armory; the Russians' next target. Although the message was untraceable he knew who had sent it. It was the only one person with the access and information who would share it with him; Alexander Sharova, his biological father.

And if he wanted out, Eric was going to help him. As he made the decision to help his father he could hear Calleigh's voice pleading over and over in his mind "_You cannot cross this line"_ and as much as he wanted to take her advice, Sharova was his family, whether he liked it or not, and he always looked out for family.

Eric wasn't thinking straight; he was upset. Calleigh didn't trust him and accused him of playing for both sides. He didn't understand why she was being so harsh about this. She greatly disliked Sharova and it was like she wanted him to be bad, but she didn't know the side of him that Eric knew.

Sharova was just an old man who was abandoned by his country and didn't want to be alone in the world. He was just looking for a family, which was how he got involved with the mob. They took him in when no one else would, but now he had Eric; now he had real family and he was ready to renounce the crime family and start over with a clean slate, beginning with getting to know his son.

Calleigh of all people should understand why he had given Sharova a second chance, why he had to stick this neck out for him, yeah it was a risk but he owed the man that much. If it wasn't for Sharova he'd be on the opposite side of the ocean in Cuba away from everybody he loved. _"Why won't she understand that?"_ He thought to himself, "_She'd do the same if it was her father. Why is she such a hypocrite sometimes?"_

Without a word to anyone Eric headed straight to his car, alone, just like the message had directed. It was probably not the best idea to listen to the instructions, when they came from the man affiliated with the Russian mob and had put a hit out on his life a couple of months ago, but he had developed a level of trust and somewhat of a bond with the man he called Enemy Number One only a few months ago, because when Eric was in need, the man he shared DNA with, helped him. Now he was going to do the same.

His plan when he arrived at the Armory was to find Sharova, sound the alarms and leave before the police arrived. This way he could get Sharova out safely, so he wouldn't be involved or associated with whatever the Russians where planning. When he was sure Sharova was far enough to be out of harm's way, he'd return and protect the armory with the rest of the force.

On the ride to the Armory, he pulled out his cell. Sharova had said come alone, but he never said not to tell anyone where he was going. He had to call someone; learning information early could change a lot. His thumb danced around the number one on the keypad, Calleigh's speed dial, but he thought better of it. He wouldn't be able to give her the tip without her asking questions about the source, ultimately resulting in another argument, but more than that, he just simply didn't want to involve her. So he quickly hit two, the speed dial for Horatio Caine.

"Come on, H pick up." he said anxiously into the phone as it rang and rang, then he get the busy tone.

He quickly he hung up and dialed Ryan's number; he could get the message to H since Eric couldn't. Ryan's phone quickly greeted his ear with the sound for yet another busy tone. _"What are the chances they'd both be on their phones at a crucial moment like this?" _He asked himself.

He thought to call dispatch, but realised didn't have enough information for them to send out anything more than a squad car to check the place out. Natalia would probably be in the lab and would be no help. Frank, he could call him. He'd normally be near Horatio.

Eric dialed the number and the phone rang and rang. _"What's going on? Why is no one answering their phones today?" _He thought. After a couple more rings, he got Frank's voice message:

"Hello you've reached the voicemail of Det. Frank Tripp. Please leave your name, number and a detailed message and I'll try to return your call as soon as possible." Eric sighed in frustration. Someone needed to know where he was, so he left a message for Frank.

"Hey, Frank this is Delko. I'm at the MDPD Armory. I got a tip that something is going down, tell Horatio to send back up. It's the Russians. It could be something big, bye." He pulled into his destination; a large warehouse-like building that was the MDPD Armory.

He felt confident that Frank would deliver his message to Horatio in a timely manner and everything was going to work out. His plan seemed solid to him, but everything that could go wrong would probably go wrong. When he closed his phone, he immediately started to look for loading deck 5. Upon spotting it, he drove towards the large loading deck that seemed more like a large garage to him. From the outside the deck looked deserted, but when he pulled in he quickly learned that he wasn't alone.

There was a very large SUV, a van and a couple of cars, all looking like department issued vehicles, not the Russian mob's. He parked and exited his car, scanning the room for the lookout, but there was none. It seemed to him that the empty cars were his only companions. He felt uneasy. _"Why is there no lookout? If the Russians had something planned here, they would have someone as a lookout."_ He thought, as he crept slowly around the space with his gun drawn.

Suddenly, he felt something cold on the back his head. Finding himself on the business end of a gun, he froze and put up his hands, tensing a great deal.

"Drop your weapon." A Russian voice barked at him.

Eric relaxed as he recognized the voice. It was Alexander Sharova.

"Woah it's me Eric, I came for you like you asked." He said, slightly turning his head to look at the older man.

"Eric?" Sharova asked confused, dropping his gun from Eric's head and turning to face him. "What are you doing here?"

"You sent me a text message, saying you said wanted out and you want me to come get you." Eric said, confused at Sharova's confusion.

"I didn't send you anything." Sharova looked around the room before dropping his voice to a whisper. "You shouldn't be here, Eric. I can't protect you, leave before they see you, your free game to them"

"What are you talking about? What do you mean you didn't send me the text?" Eric was confused more now than ever. "What do you mean you can't protect me?"He was getting angry now, maybe this was a mistake.

"I don't have time to tell you, Eric. Just leave, please. I'll call you later, just please leave, son." Sharova said pushing him away.

"I'm not leaving without you." Eric said raising his voice.

"Lower your voice, Eric you need to go." Sharova said in a whisper.

"I'm not leaving without you and you're going to tell me what exactly is going on here. You're coming with me." He said in a loud voice, grabbing Sharova's arm and pulling him towards his car.

"Eric, you don't understand--" Sharova words were cut short by another voice.

"Mr. Delko you make my job too easy" A milder Russian accented voice said from behind him.

As Eric turned to face the voice, he found it belonged to a tall slender man with black silky hair, who was wearing a black tailored suit and leather gloves to match. His face was aged and he had a scar that slanted from his cheek bone to his jaw line under his right eye, possibly from a knife wound.

He looked very different from the typical Russian mobsters Eric had encountered. He didn't look muscular, rough or violent though he was still somewhat daunting. He was clean shaven, well manicured, neat looking, and gentlemanly. He had a vintage swagger to him and he didn't look very much like a criminal.

Eric had no idea who the man was; he'd never seen him before, yet the man knew him. He'd even called him by name. Eric looked at the man confused, which only made the man responded by laughing. Sharova hung his head and wouldn't make eye contact with the man; he feared him.

"No, you didn't know me Mr. Delko," he said at Delko's confused expression. "But all familiarity aside, it's not important who I am. Just know that I know you Mr. Delko, I know all about you. Where you live, where you work, who you work with, who you call your friends, who you call family and who you love. If you come with me and cooperate, maybe I'll forget them and they won't have to be involved."

"Yeah, well if you know so much about me, then you'd know I am not one to 'cooperate' and I'm not going anywhere with you." Eric was unaffected by the man's words. It was nothing new that the mob knew things about him. This man was stating the obvious and Eric saw him as no threat. He and Sharova could easily overpower the thin man. "Come on, Sharova we're leaving." He turned his back to the man and tried pulling a frozen Sharova along with him.

The man did not try to stop Eric. He just let them walk away, but when Eric was almost to his car the man spoke again. "Maybe your woman, the blonde one… um what's her name? Oh yes Ms. Duquesne wouldn't mind 'cooperating' with me. I'm sure she'd be so much more fun than you. We could maybe ask her on her way home from work." the man said

At hearing the mention of Calleigh's name, Eric froze and turned to face the man. He didn't know how much the mob knew about them. This was exactly what he was afraid of; the mob using Calleigh against him. He'd do anything to protect her.

"You stay away from her." Eric yelled at the man as he walked towards him. "If you lay one hand on her I swear I'll kill you." He was now pointing his finger in the man's face.

Unsurprisingly, the man remained completely calm during the exchange. "The choice is completely yours. Come with me willingly and peacefully, and Ms. Duquesne will remain unharmed, but walk away and I will use all my power to get what one want, be it you or Ms. Duquesne. And if the choice is up to me, no hard feelings Eric, but I'd pick Ms. Duquesne. I'm sure she'd be useful in more ways than one. But don't worry; I won't lay a hand on her…" The man laughed a little, in spite of himself. "I'll lay many."

Eric was angry, not only was the man threatening him, he was also threatening Calleigh. He glared at him, but all he received was a smirk in return. He decked the man in the face, catching him off guard and knocking him to the ground, Eric stood over him.

"You finished?" He yelled at the man. "Or do you want some more?"

As the man got back up from the ground, his nose began to bleed. Laughing, he wiped the blood away with the back of his hand. "You want to make this difficult, ay?" He pulled himself to his feet in one quick motion. He started towards Eric, but Sharova stepped between the two of them.

"Eric, run." Sharova had been quiet since the man appeared, but now he chose to finally intervene. The man hit Sharova with a violent, well calculated blow, making him hit the ground hard. He continued to beat the old man violently as he yelled at him in Russian. Against Sharova's advice, Eric stayed, pulling the man away from Sharova and then dealt the man some powerful blows of his own. They started to tussle, but he'd miscalculated the man's strength; his blows were more powerful then Eric had expected and the CSI quickly found that he was losing.

The man had almost over powered him when Sharova found the strength to get up from the ground. He put the man in a chokehold and Eric was able to get himself unpinned. The man struggled out of Sharova lock hold, but they were ready. Eric offered a few blows to the face and Sharova tried a kick in his knee, but the man grab Sharova's foot, twisting it. Sharova yelled out in pain, Eric stomped on the man's hand before the man could break Sharova feet. They had the higher ground now and it seemed as though they were going to make it out.

Then a burst of noise echoed through the deck as men exited the Armory; each carrying lots of ammunition, firearms and metal cases that were probably filled with more weapons. Someone was yelling and screaming commands over the noise and the man began to load the weapons into the cars. Up until then, Eric had thought the three of them were the only people at the armory. It had never occurred on him that there might be other people inside and they were not alone. He froze; now he was in the middle of this mess. He had got himself in too deep, way too deep. The Russians were robbing the armory and as he was present, people would think he was involved. He had to get out before it was too late.

The man took advantage of Delko's frozen state, over powering him. An instant a couple of men ran over and helped in the process, grabbing Sharova as well. Now they were trapped and the chances of the quick escape Eric was planning were slim. Eric tried to free himself, but it was hopeless; they were stuck.

"I hope you didn't think we were going to let you leave so soon. We said come alone for a reason. No one will come looking for a traitor." The man said to Eric, who was now being restrained by two men.

"_He sent the text._" Eric thought angrily. "I'm not involved in anything going down here." Eric yelled angrily at the man, trying desperately to free himself.

"Oh no, not yet, Eric Delko. You are a very important pawn in this game. You will help me capture my king." He stood inches from Eric face. "It's up to you, how many other players will be sacrificed, because if you resist me I will show no mercy." He whispered in a voice that made his accent come out more thick and harsh than it had the previous times he spoke. "Take him away"

The men restraining Eric did as they were told. As they walked away, Eric looked back and saw the man step up to Sharova, who was being restrained also, and started to beat him viciously. That when Eric heard it, the sirens in the distance coming closer and closer. Help was on its way. He wasn't the only person to notice it, and this time he was the one to use his opponent's frozen state to his advantage.

He quickly stepped on the back of one of his captures legs breaking it. Yelling in pain, the man released Eric from his grasp. He quickly subdued the other man by grabbed the man's sidearm and hitting him over the head with it. Free, he quickly headed over to Sharova.

"Hey!" Eric yelled, pointing the gun at the man beating Sharova. The man stopped and turned to face him. When he turned Eric released three bullets into the man. As he hit the ground, the man holding Sharova released him, and ran to his boss' aid.

By that time the police had arrived and ordered the Russians to stand down, drop their weapons and come out hands up. The order was ignored and a firefight started between the two sides.

The task of capturing Eric had been abandoned; now the main focus was escaping with as many of the weapons as possible. Eric walked over and retrieved Sharova. Helping the injured old man to his feet, they moved towards the car. As they reached the car the gunfire in the entrance of the loading deck was getting more intense, but the sound of more sirens approaching grew. Eric helped Sharova into the car then walked over to the driver's side, open the door and put the keys into the ignition.

The engine roared to life. He positioned his car to pull out of the deck in a quick motion. The Russians made a clear path for his exit, thinking he was one of them escaping with weapons. Their mistake worked to his advantage, making his escape easier since he didn't have to worry about any human obstacles, but as he exited the deck the police thought he was a Russian too. A rain of bullets showered his car, but thankfully they hit the car and not the passengers.

"Who was that man?" Eric yelled at Sharova, over the noise, as he drove the car out of the deck. It seemed the most logical question that was running through his racing mind to ask.

"An Enemy." Was all a badly beaten Sharova could muster.

As he pulled out of the deck, he saw the Russians holding off the police barricade. He would have to go around the barricade if he had any hope of coming out of this one alive. As he pulled out even more bullets flew towards him. He was thankful that not everyone on the force had the best aim, but not a second after the thought left his mind, bullets pierced though the window and ripped through his body.

He turned to faced the shooter and found himself looking into familiar eyes. Calleigh stood, her arms perched on the window of a hummer door and her gun pointed in his direction, frozen. She saw him and as they looked into each other's eyes, it seemed as though the world stopped. Her eyes filled with pain and confusion as they looked into his. Her glance lasted for what seemed like an eternity; he was lost in her eyes. He didn't snap out of it until the car hit the curb. As they started going off the road and onto the grass, the pain from the bullet started to sink in.

She'd shot him and she'd got him good; pain shot up through his shoulder. He looked down and saw how badly he was bleeding. The blinding pain distracted him from the task at hand, driving. The wound had greatly compromised his driving skills and the car moved wildly through the grass. His arm started to go numb and he lost control of the car as he started to lost consciousness.

That was all he could remember clearly. Everything after that point was blurry. He could remember flying around the car a little as he loss control, and water, but that was it. The clearest memory in his mind was the look on Calleigh's face; the look in her eyes as she saw him on the other side of the line hurt more than the bullets in his body. It was the image playing over and over in his mind as he drifted into unconsciousness and into darkness once more as he seat in the dark room reminiscing.

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**Thanks for reading, tell me what you think. Are you feeling the other characters point of view? Please review - Quitethefangirl**


	5. I'm Fine

**T****itle****:** In The Line of Fire**  
**

**Timeline: **7x25 "Seeing Red_**"  
**_

**Author:** Quitethefangirl

**Genre:** Angst/Crime_**  
**_

**Summary:** Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

**Author Note: **Here is the next chapter. I know its short, but its a very necessary part of the story. I promised the next chapter will be much longer. Thank you everyone who review the last chapters, I really enjoyed having review to read again, you guys really encouraged me to continue writing. Anywhoser I was watching CSI: NY the other day and the police were coming in to make a bust and guess who was the detective leading the bust? Ron Saris, OK it wasn't the character Ron Saris, but the man who plays him in the show. I was quite confused at this, I was like did they totally "Actor Recycle" him and used him on a different show or does he just really look like the guy who plays Ron. So like we all do when we're in doubt, I googled him and found the indeed it was the guy who plays Ron Saris, whose name is Kim Coates and he has been in at least one episode of every CSI show and he's not the only person to appear in different CSI show as a complete different characters either. Apparently the CSI franchise people are really into recycling actors, random but true. GO GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!lol

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**Chapter Five**

**I'm Fine**

Calleigh headed straight for the lockers when she arrived at the Crime Lab. She stormed through the halls offering no excuse to the people she collided with in the process. Her grief and guilt had evolved into anger; she was mad at herself, she was mad at Sharova, she was even mad at Eric.

"_Why didn't he listen?"_ she kept asking herself. "_Why did he shut me out? Why didn't he tell what he was planning to do? Would it have mattered? Why does he trust that man? How did Sharova brainwash him? Why did I tell him it was his father in the car? Should I have reported it? Why doesn't he trust me? Why did he lie to me?" _

She couldn't find an answer or excuse that satisfied her so she punched the locker, hard. Tears of frustration fell down her face, when she noticed she wasn't alone.

Ryan was leaning on the door to the locker room, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed in concern. The towing truck that was carrying Eric's car to the lab was no comparison to the department issued Hummer, he know Horatio said not to let the car out of his sight, but driving at even the slowest of pace he still managed to make it to the Crime Lab way ahead on the truck. As he waited on the arrival of the tow truck he thought to best to check on Calleigh and make sure she was heading home like Horatio asked him to.

He had no success finding her at first. She wasn't in any of her usual spots, the Ballistics Lab, Trace or the Break room. He knew Calleigh to be stubborn when she was sent home and he half expected he was going to have to drag her out the lab and forcible make her go home, not like he'd be capable. Finding her in the locker room was a completely stunned to him; it also brought him great relief.

She gazed at him swiftly then sat down on the bench, with her back turn to him. He lingered in the doorway a little bit longer, formulating the words to say, before walking over to join her on the bench. He sat down and sighed, scratching his head, still unsure of the words to say. He was there when she fired the shot, and he saw the horror in her eyes. _"What do you say to that?" _He thought.

He leaned forward; his fingers tightly gripping the edge of the bench, and looked at her. Every aspect of the Calleigh he knew was gone. Her bright smile was replaced with a blank expression; her shiny hair was limp, messy and dull; her posture was all wrong, her back slumped and head hung low. There was something else in her eyes; sadness with a hint of something he never seen, at least not in her eyes. It was something dangerous and it scared him. For a few moments they sat there in silence, before Ryan finally he broke it.

"H, uh- he wanted me to make sure you got home safe. You ok? You need me to drive you?"

She didn't answer right away, just sat there, but after a while she replied.

"We got in our first real argument today; I was livid, I was really mad at him." She saw Ryan's pained, weak smile and continued. "I didn't know it would be the last time I spoke to him or saw him up close, before I- I." Her voice broke and her lips began to tremble, but she had to get it out, she had to tell someone. "I yelled at him, Ryan. I wish I could take it back; tell him I loved him one last time."

Ryan sat there listening in shock, but not because of Calleigh and Eric, he knew they were in a relationship. Although he didn't know to what extent, almost everyone in the building with the exception of the IAB department knew about 'them'. There were quite a few rumors going around regarding the two. He wasn't one for rumors, but he was a CSI and had a gut feeling and every gut feeling had to be backed with some evidence. He'd seen the way they looked at each other when they thought no one was looking, or when their smiles brightened just because the other had entered the room.

If the circumstances were different, he'd let out a little 'I knew it!' chant and dancing before running off to collect his winnings in the 'Are they or are they not?' pool they had running in the office. Frank and Valera (to name a few) were going to have to pay up. He wanted to brag to Boa Vista of his superior observation skills because he was the one to inform her that 'love was in the air,' but he held his tongue.

What shocked him was that it was Calleigh; Calleigh Duquesne was pouring her heart out to him. He was expecting an 'I'm fine' comment and be to brushed away. He'd never seen his mentor in this state; so vulnerable, so unsure, so- so human. He listened in silence as she continued.

"I wish I could hold him in my arms a little longer, but now he's – he's" her tears were starting up again but she quickly wiped them away and replacing them with an angry flash in her eyes. "I need to talk to Sharova. He knows something, he has to." She went to get up but Ryan gently placed an arm in front of her.

"Wait up there Cal, I can't let you do that. H gave specific orders not to let anyone interrogate Sharova, especially not you. We have to do this right." He sounded nervous, as if unsure as to how Calleigh would react. To his relief, she sat back down.

Putting a hand to her face, she sighed, blowing off steam. "I just need some peace of mind. I want to have hope," she said in a teary voice. "But I can't help but think the worst. He could be out there bleeding to death or worse, he could be dead and it's all my fault, Ryan it's my fault I-I killed him. Where is he?" She shook her head before lowering to her lap. She was losing control again and, in agony, she began to sob.

Ryan offered her a Kleenex. He needed to do something to comfort her; he owed her that much. "He going to be ok," He said, getting a little teary-eyed himself. "Eric's a fighter. I'm sure he's ok. They're going to find him, Calleigh. Don't blame yourself; you didn't know it was him." He put his hand on her shoulder and looking her in the eye, flashed a smile of reassurance.

With the Kleenex she wiped the tears from her eyes. He was no Eric, but Ryan's words of reassurance let herself feel hope for the first time since the shootout.

"Thank you, Ryan" She said grabbing his hand. Looking him in the eyes, she sniffed away the remaining tears. "I'm going to go home, but I need to do something first."

"What? What do you need to do?" Ryan asked a little scared. He thought they were making progress, and he'd promised Horatio he'd make sure she went home.

"I need to check the morgue," Ryan looked at her in horror.

"Cal, I don't think that Eric is ther- um that's not a good-" He stuttered.

"Just for peace of mind." She reassured him, offering a weak smile to his reaction.

"You need me to come with you?"

"No, I'm fine." She stood and exited the locker room.

Ryan sat there and couldn't help but roll his eyes at her last words _'She just had to say it!'_ He thought '_She just had to say it!'_

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**Thanks for Reading, please review and I'll promised a surprise visit from some our favorite characters- Quitethefangirl**


	6. Closure and Exposure

**T****itle****:** In The Line of Fire**  
**

**Timeline: **7x25 "Seeing Red_**"  
**_

**Author:** Quitethefangirl

**Genre:** Angst/Crime_**  
**_

**Summary:** Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

**Author Note:** For felixlee14, I hope there is enough of Calleigh's feelings to your liking in this chapter and I promise there will be more in the next chapter also. Anywhooser I had I crazy week, I started school, I crashed my computer (this would have been posted way earlier) and I (BIG EMPHASIS on the I) fixed it (and they call themselves techies), I rode public transportation for the first time (a bike was stolen from the front of the bus, there was a yelling match between two passengers. There was this man who was eavesdropping and participating in my phone conversation. I had to touch that pully thing to make the bus driver stop and it was gross, thank God for Purell. I missed my bus home by seconds because the light at the crosswalk turned red and had to wait 30 minute from a new one to come, but I met a fellow art student from my school. Ironically we had the same stop and it was both of our first times riding the bus, also we once meet in passing once at a scholarship interview, I let him go before me because I was late and he was early. Random, but yeah. Well let me shut up, you've come to read the story and not about my life.

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**Chapter 6  
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** Closure and Exposure**

Calleigh headed towards the ME's office. She wasn't sure why she wanted to check the morgue, if Eric was there she would already know, but she needed some kind of closure. She forced her mind to wander; thinking about anything other than Eric. Her thoughts wandered to who was working the post; there had been so much drama in the ME's Office lately.

After Alexx's departure, they had gone through five different ME's. One had ended up on the table before she even had the chance to work it. Tara Price, the latest ME's was arrested for stealing evidence a few weeks ago and was facing charges. A replacement hadn't been hired but with the shootout and the car accident earlier, it was sure to be chaos.

There had been many fatalities on both sides, leaving a large trail of bodies and Calleigh was confident those weren't the only deaths in Miami-Dade County today. There were probably a handful of other bodies, too. Calleigh was sure a very tired, overworked, stressed out, night shift medical examiner was manning the post. He would be cranky because he was supposed to be off today and asleep at home after pulling doubles almost all week; he'd be barking order at the staff and would only be annoyed by her presence. When she neared the office and walked through the doors, she was shocked at who greeted her.

It was Alexx; she was alone, bent over a body examining it. She greeted Calleigh without looking up.

"Hey Calleigh, how you holding up baby girl?" she said in a gentle, concerned voice.

"Hey Alexx, you know I'm really not sure," Calleigh said below a whisper. "It's like there's some moments of hope and other moments I keep blaming myself and I'm angry; I yelled at him. I-I don't know." She leaned up against the cold chamber, eyes closed, and her hand to her head. She found herself fighting tears once again. She quickly changed the subject. "How'd you end up here? Are you back?"

Alexx started to pry a bullet from forehead of the dead body. She looked up at Calleigh. The younger woman looked a little worse for wear; her eyes and nose were puffy and red, Alexx didn't have to be a medical examiner to tell she had been crying, a lot.

"When I heard about the shootout and Eri- everything," she thought it was best not the mention Eric's name, she looked down, focusing back to the task at hand and finished examining the body. "I called Horatio to see if there was any way I could help. I know about the misfortune of the last ME; I make Ryan keep me updated with all the office drama I'm missing. So I offered expertise and they were glad to accept. Ted, the poor man could barely keep eyes open he was worn so ragged, he practically bolted when I arrived to replace him. I'm glad to help, albeit temporarily and despite the circumstances, I'm glad to be back, after years of working with the dead, it a big adjustment working with the living let me tell you, you have to get used to patients who fight back."

That made Calleigh chuckle a little and smile. Alexx looked up at her and smiled, too.

"That's my Calleigh," she smiled. It was the reaction she was hoping for. She put the bullet into a baggie and prepped the body to be placed in the cold chamber. She washed down her tools and hands, disrobed and removed her gloves. Walking to Calleigh, the ME pulled her into a hug before pulling back and cupping Calleigh's face with her hands.

"Love is hard, baby girl but don't lose hope. You'll be back in his arms in no time." Alexx said, wiping away stray tear from Calleigh's cheek. A teary Calleigh smiled, tightly. It was times like these when she felt Alexx was more of a mother to her than her own.

"How did you know about-" she started.

"I knew before you did, Honey. I knew before either of you." Alexx smiled, they both laughed.

A few assistant ME's arrived with more bodies. Calleigh knew Alexx had to get back to work so she took this as her cue to leave. Calleigh thanked Alexx as she left. She didn't need to check the bodies; Alexx's words of wisdom were the best closure she could ask for. With a renewed sense of hope, she headed to her car.

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After Calleigh left the locker room, Ryan sat and pondered of a second. He looked at his watch and thought it best to check the garage and see if the car had arrived yet. He got up and started walking towards the garage when he felt someone following him. He looked back to be greeted by none other than Rick Stetler.

"Mister Wolfe, I've been looking for you. Ms. Duquesne has already managed to evade me, so you're the next best witness; both you and she were there when everything went down. I need you to answer some questions." He said.

Ryan continued walking. "I have direct orders to be elsewhere. I'll answer your questions when I have the time, but at the moment I have more pressing priorities." He told Stetler curtly.

"If you're heading to the garage to process that car I can't let you do that. I can't have you compromising evidence." Stetler in a snippy voice.

Ryan turned and started to walk toward Stetler. He stopped just short of the IAB Agent's personal space. "What are you talking about, Rick? And how could I be compromising evidence? Care to explain?" Ryan spat angrily to his face before walking away.

"You know 'people' talk and I um hear that hindering a police investigation is a huge offense, so is aiding and abetting. That's two strikes, totaling up three strikes on your record over all and you know what they say – three strikes and you're out Mr. Wolfe." Rick shot at him.

Ryan froze in his tracks. Stetler's words scared him, but he tried his best to hide it in his outward appearance. Was he talking about the Billy Gantry incident? Though he lost a lot of trust over the whole thing, the team understood there were extenuating circumstances. Horatio and the team dealt with the issue privately and thought it best not involve IAB.

There was no way that Stetler could know about it, unless someone on the team told him. Natalia wasn't involved. Calleigh and Eric were pretty upset and angry about it at first, but when Horatio explained the reasoning for Wolfe's actions, they cooled down. He was sure they wouldn't go telling Stetler, he trusted them and he knew them better than that, but something still nagged him.

No, no one on the team would sell him out. Eric was mad, but he thought he knew him better than that, he wouldn't, but then again, he didn't think he'd be working with the mob. What else was he doing there? He was at the armory when the Russians where robbing it and he wasn't on police business. Or maybe Calleigh said something; she can get really hot and bothered about following procedures when it is not her breaking them. Maybe it was the both of them; they have been acting very secretive lately. Heck maybe it was Natalia, she's shown how good she can be at observing and reporting.

"_Wait, what I am I thinking? They'd never do anything like that. Stetler's just messing with my head, trying to get me to sell myself out." _Ryan thought.

Ryan turned to face Stetler once more, chuckling at him. "Interesting accusation there, Rick, however if I was actually guilty of this crimes you are accusing me of, then why are you standing here alone and not accompanied by some officers, making an official arrest. As for hindering, you're pretty good at it yourself, so if you would so kindly hinder me no further I have a car to process. Excuse me." He turned and continued on his way to the garage.

"You're not getting away with this Mr. Wolfe and I expect you for questioning in the morning. Horatio Caine can't save you this time." He yelled at Ryan. "He can't save any of you." He added in a voice only audible to himself.

Ryan ignored Stetler and continued to the garage. When he was safely inside, he pulled out his phone and dialed Horatio.

"Ryan, you have any news on the car?" Horatio answered the phone without a greeting, a usual anxiousness in his voice.

"Um no, I was confronted by Rick Stetler when I was on my way to. He threatened me with charges. He said he couldn't let me process the car because he fears I'll compromise evidence, H. What does that mean?" He lowered his voice before frantically adding, "He threatened me with hindering a police investigation and aiding and abetting. I think he-"

Horatio cut him off "Ryan, calm down and finish the task at hand; process the car. I don't know Stetler's game, but he has no ground to stand on. Your actions are no secret; they're common knowledge. The chief is aware of what happened with that case. I explained the circumstances to him so that if ever a situation like this would arise, you wouldn't be reprimanded this time. That's how I got the Gantry's placed in protective custody. So take a few breaths, clear your head and process the car. Call me when you get something, I'll deal with Stetler."

With that he ended the call. Ryan breathed a deep sigh of relief and smiled. Stetler had him really scared. Putting on his lab coat and a pair of latex gloves, he began to process the car. He started in the front, dusting the steering wheel and dash board area for prints; he managed to pull a few useable ones that he was sure belonged mostly to Eric and Sharova. When he was done lifting the prints he started looking for a bullet, hoping from the most part Calleigh missed her target, but judging by the blood on the seat it was less than likely.

Using the bullet holes Calleigh made in the glass, he developed a bullet trajectory. As he inserted the rods through the holes, he noticed there was something off about the holes. From what he could remember in the frantic rush of the shooting, Calleigh only let out about three to four rounds at Eric. There were only two bullet holes, which could mean that the rest were still in Delko, but it was the size of the two holes that seemed strange.

The hole that was located 3/4 from top of the driver's seat was circular and consistent with the size of the .45 caliber bullet of Calleigh's standard-issue weapon, but the other hole that was between the middle and the center back seat was nothing more than a slit. It was so small he almost disregarded it as just a rip in the fabric. He was no ballistics expert, but he knew it definitely wasn't made by any standard-issue weapon the police department used.

What took him as strange was the fact that there was only one hole in the front window of the car. By the positioning of the bullet in the back seat, it couldn't have come from anywhere but the front window. It puzzled him. From what he remembered in the rush of the shooting, Calleigh was at the very edge on the police barricade and no one was standing in front of the car. He had no clue where the bullet had come from. He realized there had to be a second shooter aiming at Eric too, for what reason he didn't know; if Eric was even the target he didn't know. But whatever weapon the shooter used, must have been a long range gun because no one knew the second shooter existed until now.

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***singing* You've read it, so review it. There nothing to it, you you can do it. You love it, you hate it, lets negotiate it, lets lets debate it (I know, I need help lol)- Quitethefangirl**


	7. Makes No Sense

**T****itle****:** In The Line of Fire**  
**

**Timeline: **7x25 "Seeing Red_**"  
**_

**Author:** Quitethefangirl

**Genre:** Angst/Crime_**  
**_

**Summary:** Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

**Author Note: **Long time no update right? Been crazy busy but here we are. So much has happens since my last update, I have this creep guy stalking me at school, he kissed my hand (I had a major OCD moment and I didn't have any Purrell with me. I basically gave myself a 1st degree burn washing that kiss off) I got screwed by my college and that is a long story that I will not tell because it would be longer than this chapter. I need glasses and I'm not sure how I feel about it yet, but the eye doctor was the tiny little old man who looked like he was a pixar character and hilariously enough his name is Micheal Micheal. I'm a have an secret identity who? That I can't tell you because it's a secret, but I'm kind of in a Justice League Type group and as weird as it sounds it's true. I like twitter and "Party in the USA" by Hannah Montana and I hate myself for it. Though I absolutely loathed the last season with a passion at how it started so great and end so lame, I've decided to watch Ugly Betty this season solely because Adam Rodriguez is going to be in it and heart him. While we are on the subject of Adam there is this boy who goes to my school, who looks like he could be his cousin or something (HOW ARE YOU DOING? :) :) :) Anyways I'm enjoying the new season of CSI: Miami, could be better but I'll taking what I can get. I must say I hate Jesse Cardoza with a burning passion, there are so many should be EC scenes with him in it instead of Eric. With Eric leaving (I HATE YOU CBS) and the relationship of the hiphuggers potentially ending (I have my finger cross they stay together) Jesse scares me. If they make him and Calleigh an (pain me to say it) "item" I will never watch the show again and I kill the writers and Jerry Bruckheimer (Joking). Anywhooser I'm being stupid, I know no one reads the Author notes anyway so why do I write them?

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**Chapter 7 **

**Makes No Sense**

Calleigh left the lab filled with hope, but nothing could prepare her for the feeling that would overtake her when she arrived home. Two of her five senses screamed Eric as soon as she opened the door. The smell his cologne he ritualistically 'bathed' in every morning, filled her nose as she entered the house. She always teased him about how it smelled too sweet for cologne and swear it was perfume, but she loved the way he smelled and how his scent only complemented hers.

She saw evidence of Eric all over the living room. On the couch she found a scattered mess of Eric's clothes and an overflowing basket with more on the floor. He'd promised to fold them after work, three days ago. On the coffee table were a half eaten breakfast plate and a cup of Coffee Cubano he hadn't cleaned from that morning. Many other random items of Eric's decorated the floor and shelves.

Calleigh, who was somewhat a perfectionist and clean freak normally kept her house spotless. There was actually more evidence of Eric living there than she herself. She called him a slob, but he claimed there was a method to his madness; he had a philosophy that 'if a house is a home, it's ok for it to look like someone lived there.' He was right; he made her house feel much more homely than it ever had.

What she missed the most was his touch, his voice, his taste, his presence. She collapsed in the doorway, drowning in her own despair once more. She was unable to make it any further into the house, as Eric's absence was too much for her to bear. She sat there alone, upset. Crying, she put her hands up to her face, unsure where to go or who to turn to.

A little girl stood staring at Calleigh. Walking over, the girl tapped her on the shoulder. "Excuse me Mrs. Officer Delko, is Mr. Officer Delko home? Do you remember me? Mr. Officer Delko said he'd help me fix my bicycle today."

Calleigh looked up at the little girl, unsure where she came from or who she was. She could be one of her neighbors, but between work and life she never really took the time to officially meet any of them. She'd only seen them in passing, offering a 'hello' as she headed to work, but that was the extent of it. She only had a friendly passerby relationship, nothing personal. Calleigh looked at the girl unsure what to say to the child beaming at her; totally oblivious to her distraught appearance.

The girl reminded Calleigh of herself as a child, at about five or six, with curly blonde hair and beautiful green eyes. She held a bike with a bent front wheel and had cuts and bruises on her arms and legs, which made Calleigh remember something Eric mentioned the other day. On his way home the other day, he saw her neighbor's little girl trying to teach herself to ride a two-wheeler when she almost crashed to the ground. He'd reached her just time to save her before she tasted the cement. He asked where her parents were and why she didn't ask them to teach her to ride a bike, but she told him that her parents were too busy working to teach her and her nanny was cooking dinner. Eric then spent the evening teaching her to ride.

There were some bumps and bruises on the way but finally they succeeded. They were finishing up when Calleigh pulled in the driveway. Seeing Eric and the little girl she smiled, knowing she had picked the right one. For a second she imagined what it would be like to marry Eric and have children with him. Though all her life she thought that it wasn't for her, it was in that moment that she realized it was something she greatly desired, especially with Eric.

Since he had started to come over, her neighbors would wave at her and call her by name. Some even started conversions with her, asking about work or Eric; often mentioning how great he was. In his neighborhood everyone knows everyone. Due to his great sense of family and community, and always wanting to familiarize himself with his surroundings, he knew more of Calleigh's neighbors than she did.

"Yeah, I remember you." Calleigh wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled at the girl. "Um Mr. Delko is not home right now, I'm sorry." She couldn't hide the sadness in her voice. The child looked at her worried and took a seat next to her, grabbing Calleigh's hand.

"Are you ok, Mrs. Officer Delko?" She said softly. The child felt her distress and was trying to comfort her. Calleigh smiled weakly. The little girl kept calling her Mrs. Officer Delko. She obviously thought Calleigh and Eric were married, and Calleigh didn't know whether correct the girl or not. She liked the way it sounded, but hearing his name with hers just wasn't right; it tore her apart and made her feel even more guilty. Ignoring the question Calleigh turned to her.

"It's Ms. Calleigh Duquesne, ok? Eric and I um-uh are friends. You can call me Calleigh, ok?" She sweetly brightened her smile at the girl, who was looking so innocent and cute.

"Um ok, well my name is Molly DuPont." The girl said proudly point at herself. "You can call me Molly, why are you sad?" Molly asked; her face set in deep concern. Calleigh didn't know how to answer her. Molly was persistent with her questioning and wanted to cheer Calleigh up. Calleigh looked away, formulating the words to say to the girl. She didn't want to lie. She hated when people did that to her when she was a child.

"Eric got lost and I miss him." It was the truth, plain and simple. Molly's eyes widened as she threw herself into the CSI's arms.

"I missed him, we have to find him." She started to cry. Calleigh sat shocked at Molly's reaction; she hadn't intended to upset the child. As she recovered, she slowly wrapped her arms around Molly. As soon as she did the child pulled away and faced her.

"But we'll find him Ms. Officer Calleigh. I'm sure of it, because if we don't who will fix my bike?"

"Yeah." Calleigh laughed "We will."

Before another word could be spoken Molly's nanny started frantically calling her name. "MOLLY, MOLLY?" She yelled as she ran across Molly's front lawn.

Calleigh stood up and walked Molly over to her frantic nanny, handing her to the woman. "I'm so sorry if she bothered you at all, I was just so busy cooking. I didn't notice she slipped out the house." The nanny apologized.

"It's ok really, she's a sweet child." Calleigh smiled.

"Thanks." The nanny scooped Molly into her arms, fussing at her in Spanish as they walked into the house.

"Bye, Ms. Officer Calleigh." Molly waved at her as she was being carried away.

Calleigh walked back to her house taking her place on the porch, thinking. All her life she strived to be the best she could be and she was; she was the best ballistic expert Miami-Dade county had seen. She was determined not to walk in the footsteps of her parents, but she was very much like them. Though alcohol was not her chosen addiction, her work was.

Her work was her life. She had no friends outside of work, no real life outside of work, even the men she dated she met at work or through work; she had no real family she could count on. Every aspect of her life revolved around her work. She neglected making friends because she was always thinking about the next case even after she was off the clock, every conversion would always wind up being about work.

Now she sat on a porch, alone, in front of a house that she couldn't bear to enter and with no one to turn to, because she had pushed everyone away, so absorbed in her own problems and taking pity on herself.

She thought she deserved it. The way she treated others, to her made no sense why they still loved her. She sat on the porch for an hour in misery before finally entering the house; she had to get some rest if she going to make it to work on time in the morning. Even in all the sorrow her mind was still on work, the only thing in life she could depend on.

Before she went inside, she promised herself that she would change. When things got back to normal and Eric was found she would change. She'd meet the neighbors, have friends outside of work and even have dinner parties, get married to Eric, if he would have her, and start a family of her own. She would unlock herself from her own personal prison and live. She promised herself she would change. Entering the house, she looked towards the future. After taking a shower, she went to the guest room and straight to bed, falling asleep instantly.

The more Ryan processed the car, the more confused he became. After shooting a couple of pictures of the holes, he proceeded to bag and tag the bullets. First pulling Calleigh's bullet out of the front seat and placing it in an evidence bag and labeling it, he then proceeded to retrieve the bullet from the back seat.

Inserting a long pair of tweezers into the seat cushion and reaching as far in as possible, he could only reach the tip of what he thought was the bullet. After a few moments of trying he resolved that it was necessary to retrieve the bullet by other means. He walked to the front of the car and popped the trunk. He whistled as he made to the trunk, but the tone died on his lips when he saw the contents.

It caught him off guard completely. He was expecting the trunk to be empty with the minor exception of the random stuff a normal guy kept in his trunk, but this, this was—he was at a loss for words. Ryan looked into the trunk, blinking excessively from disbelief. He prayed that his eyes were fooling him because Eric's trunk was filled with guns, guns and more guns.

The sound of the tweezers hitting the ground broke him from his daze. Putting his hand to his head in shock, he let out a huge sigh. Up until now, though there were a few moments of doubt, he truly thought Eric was innocent. However he was having a change of heart, well it was more a rush of confusion, he didn't know what to believe.

Eric had been different recently. Though the mob was hunting him down over the last few months he'd been happy. He had everything going for him, so why would he be working with the Russian? Was the threat of the mob just a front for Eric? An excuse he used to get closer to the mob's dealing without setting off any red flags? Putting the lives of the rest of the team at risk?

He couldn't breathe. The thought that one of his co-workers, his friend, was a criminal, a traitor was too much for him to bear. He stumbled over to a nearby work station and sat down. After a few breathless seconds his brain recognized its need for oxygen and remembered how to intake the air once more. With his head still in his hands he took in several deep, laboured breaths.

His mind was working on overload. Closing his eyes, he ran his hand down his face, before balling his hand into a fist and resting it on the bridge of his nose. "Eric, what have you gotten yourself into?" He said aloud knowing the only person who could answer was still missing. In frustration he swiped his arm across the workstation, sending several objects crashing to the floor. He hated himself for believing his friend Eric was guilty, but he couldn't fight the feeling.

He'd abandoned processing the car for the time being. He couldn't bring himself to look any further for fear of what he might find. He sat, pondering what his next steps should be. Pulling out his phone, he dialed Horatio's number. The phone rang twice before the senior CSI answered.

"Ryan." His voice was raspier than normal, sounding broken, wary and very un-Horatio.

Ryan closed his eyes and pinching his left brow with his thumb and first finger. He started to pace the room. With his head slightly bent down, he sighed heavily into the phone before speaking. "Horatio, um" he didn't know what to say or how to say it, so he decided to be as straightforward as possible. "I found- I found guns in Delko's trunk. The incriminating evidence in this car alone is enough to-- it has me-- has me um questioning the likeliness of Delko coming out of this clean. His chances are slim, very slim. I-I don't know what to think or believe right now. HE HAD GUNS; GUNS FROM THE ARMORY IN HIS TRUNK, H." He yelled the last part in frustration. Stopping his pacing, he let out a few quick pants into the phone.

Horatio hesitated before he spoke, sighing. "Ryan?" He said in a hushed voice. He was on the move from what Ryan could hear; it sounded as if he was distancing himself from people around him. Ryan didn't answer. "Ryan?" He said again, even quieter than the first time. "I need you to calm down, son."

"Ok Ok, H. I just don't know--" He stopped mid sentence, cupping his hand over his mouth and balling it up in a fist over it.

"I need you to—I need you to think about what you're saying? Do you actually believe that Eric is working for the mob?" There was a silence over the phone before he continued, "I need you to look at this not from a personal perspective, but professionally. Could Eric be dirty, what does the evidence say?"

Ryan could hear the pain in Horatio's voice as he spoke the last words. He hated that he had to do this to Eric. The younger man wasn't just a subordinate to him, he was one of his closest friends and he felt like a brother. They'd been through a lot with together and it tore him a part to have to betray him like this. Ryan could hear him weakening with every word.

"I-I didn't know, H. My professional opinion with all this evidence mounted against him said 'yes, he's guilty,' but the fact that I know him personally, I know Eric would never do such a thing. This is Eric we're talking about; he's as loyal as they come. There's no way he's a traitor. He has so much going for him. He wouldn't- he wouldn't do this, he wouldn't." Ryan said, throwing his earlier doubt to the wind. "Who's to say someone's not painting the portrait they want us to see to disguise the true picture?" Ryan added. He knew how well set-ups could be orchestrated.

"Well, I'm glad we see eye to eye." Horatio replied, relieved Ryan still some faith in Eric, when almost everyone else's seem to be dwindling. "Finish processing the car. We still need to prove our theory with evidence." With that Horatio ended the call.

After Ryan collected himself, he proceeded to collect the guns for the trunk of the car. If Eric was in his position he'd like to think the Cuban would give him the benefit of the doubt. That was what he planned to do, help Eric maintain his innocence. He wasn't going to be a let down again; he was going to redeem himself.

He worked endlessly, processing every single weapon thoroughly. A few hours later he had fingerprinted, bagged and tagged every single one of the 64 weapons that were in the trunk. When it was completely empty, Ryan retrieved his tweezers once more. Removing the half exposed bullet from the seat now proved to be an easier task.

He twisted the projectile in the air examining it, only to learn it wasn't a bullet at all. He didn't need Calleigh to tell him that it was some kind of dart or tranquilizer of some kind, confusing him more, "Why would the second shooter be using tranks?" He asked himself aloud. He couldn't find an answer. Picking up his phone, he dialed Horatio once more.

"H, you're never going to believe this." He said into the phone.

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**I'll try to update soon but I'm a little blocked at the moment, I'm looking to be re-inspired. Reviews help the process greatly- Quitethefangirl**


	8. A Promise and A Threat

**T****itle****:** In The Line of Fire**  
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**Timeline: **7x25 "Seeing Red_**"  
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**Author:** Quitethefangirl

**Genre:** Angst/Crime_**  
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**Summary:** Eric is missing and on top of that the team is facing another battle and Stetler is behind the gun. As the team' searches for Eric and they put under administrative review by IAB.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything

**Author Note:** It been a long minute since I updated and there are many reasons and excuses I can make for that and all of them valid but I'm not going to waste your time to explain myself. Partially because I don't feel like typing it and I don't really think you care. So without further to do my latest chapter

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**Chapter 8**

** A Promise and a Threat **

Frank roughly walked Sharova up the stairs of the Crime Lab. The car ride up was dead silent; Frank was preparing himself mentally to face the chaos ahead. He really just wanted the chance to go at it with Sharova and beat the information out of him. He was losing patience; the search thus far had brought forth no fruit and he wanted answers now.

He hated that Eric had associated himself with scum like Sharova. Though it didn't seem like it looking in from the outside, Frank was very much a part of Horatio's Crime lab family. It was unclear exactly where he fit to the family portrait, but he was always there when the team needed him and he cared deeply for them, even if it didn't show as much. He'd give his life for anyone of them just like a protective uncle and he was going to do his best to help Eric maintain his innocence, he just prayed to God that he was.

Sharova winced as Frank dragged him up the last step, opening the door and thrusting him into the lobby of the Crime Lab. Frank scanned the room for Stetler, maybe it was his lucky day. Turning, he proceeded down the hall, pulling Sharova with him. As he turned the next corner toward the holding cells, however, his luck appeared to have run out.

In front of the holding cells, stood the infamous and hated IAB officer, Rick Stetler, as if the stress of the day wasn't enough already, Frank really didn't need Rick spitting his doubled edged, venomous words at him. He didn't have anything against Stetler; he'd never wronged him personally. It was just the way he handled Horatio and the team that made Frank dislike the man. Stetler sometimes let personal, foolish issues between him and Horatio get in the way of closing cases and that really pissed the detective off.

Standing next to him was another one of Horatio's enemy, Ron Saris. He was handing Stetler a manila envelope. He was Stetler's little snitch. He'd gotten lucky, Stetler cut him a break from his charges in exchange for secrets about the inner circle of criminals Saris surrounded himself with, or that was the story. Though Rick had said it was in the best interest of the department to utilize the information Saris had to offer, he was well aware of the history that Saris and Caine shared and having him as a police informant was a good weapon to have in his arsenal, even if only to spite Horatio. Now he had an eager dog at his disposal, one who was just as willing, if not more, to destroy Horatio.

Frank stepped back quickly, but he was too late, he'd been spotted.

"Det. Tripp, just the man I was looking for. Do you have a minute?" Stetler yelled, far too cheery, down the hall as he walk toward Frank, who thought it strange. Saris stayed behind.

"While I'm taking our friend here to booking," Frank said, motioning to Sharova, who was standing alongside him with his head down. "Then I'm heading back out and joining the search of Eric. My plate's full" Stepping past Stetler, he quickly continued walking towards booking.

Ignoring his reply Stetler persisted, jogging after him. "As you know, when it's a police involved shooting IA has to run an investigation. We need to be on this while the wound is still fresh. You should be making it a priority to speak with me." He stepped in front of Frank.

Frank was starting to get annoyed. "My only priority is finding Eric Delko; saving the life of one of our own is far more important than your investigation. So if you will excuse me." He angrily pushed past Stetler this time.

"Well that is a matter of opinion." Stetler replied in a low voice, grabbing Frank's arm to stop him.

"What?" He was confused, the look presenting of his face.

Stetler hissed in his face. "It's a matter of opinion if he is in fact one of our own."

"Guess it is." Frank barked, stepping past Stetler and finally heading to booking.

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Ryan was pacing back and forth in the garage of the crime lab, deep in thought. His mind was fighting a war that was seemingly unsolvable. He was so deep in thought he didn't notice when someone had entered the room.

Stetler stood hold a manila folder in his hands, grinning. "Mr. Wolfe."

Ryan did not answer.

"Mr. Wolfe" he said again, this time clearing his throat to make his presence known.

Ryan still continued to pacing and mumbling to himself.

"Mr. Wolfe" Stetler yelled, making the CSI jump and breaking him from his pacing trance.

"I need to have a word with you" Stetler continued in a stern voice.

"I'm busy" Ryan replied, distracted yet annoyed.

The IAB agent placed the manila envelope on the desk. "Well this can't wait,"

Ryan looked at him with a cocky but sly expression on his face and crossed his arms. He was curious at what Stetler had up his sleeve now. He looked at Stetler, not saying a word and giving him his full attention. He was expecting another one of Stetler's flawed traps.

"Thank you" Stetler said once he saw he had the younger man's full attention. "Now, would you please step away from the evidence?"

"What?" Ryan looked at him in utter confusion.

"Step away from the evidence" Stetler repeated sternly

Ryan laughed and sarcastically replied, "Yeah, I got that much, but why?"

"Step away from the evidence, remove your lab coat and head to the nearest interrogation room."

"What? Interrogation room?"

"Yes, Mr. Wolfe. Effective immediately you have been suspended, pending further investigation."

"Suspended for what, Stetler? Really? Ok, H has played your games too long and right now my coworker, my friend is missing and you want to pull something crap like this. I don't have time for your STUPID GAMES." Ryan stepped toward Stetler in a swift, threatening stride, 'til he was in his face.

Rick just stood there smirking, before he started to open the manila envelope and pulled out some photos, placing them on the desk in front of Wolfe. There were picture of him and the Gantry's, him and Eric entering the Russian fight club, along with several other pictures with him and another guy he didn't quite recognize. Stetler then tipped the envelope over and a tape fell out. He looked down to watch it clang against the desk as it landed, before looking back at Ryan.

"Some new evidence has come to light, so we can do this the easy way or the hard way." As he spoke, two cadets walked into the room, one held a pair of hand cuffs. As they headed towards Ryan, they both looked apologetically at him.

The CSI put his hands up, shooing away the cadets. He wasn't going to resist Stetler's demands and make matters worse; he would go willingly. He knew H would work the situation out when he got wind of what Stetler was doing. Roughly removing his lab coat, he glaring at Stetler as walked out of the lab.

"I thought you would comply." Stetler smirked as he followed Ryan out of the garage. "I caught you red handed. You can't talk yourself out of this one." He murmured low enough for only Ryan to hear.

"You have nothing, because I haven't done anything wrong, I promise you that," Ryan hissed back, "and you'll only regret your accusation in the end and pay for it dearly."

Stetler laughed. "Are you threatening me, Wolfe?"

"No, I'm just stating facts." Wolfe spat and widened the distance between them as he walked into an interrogation room, closing the door in Stetler's face.

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The day was fading and the dark was winning the war over the sky, yet the glades were still bustling with activity. Cars were scattered across the lawn, as everyone was searching for Eric. The news station had gotten wind of the shooting and had set up camp on the glades, reporting about the missing officer and pleading for any information, promising to keep the viewers updated as the search developed.

They had been searching for hours; it was discouraging and hope was in short supply. They'd searched the entire glade twice over with still no sign of Eric, not even a tiny hair of evidence. Though there were many people looking for his friend, but Horatio couldn't help but feel like he was on his own.

His team had been sent off on different task. Unfortunately, the more news he received from them it seemed the worst it got. Natalia had finished her scene and the body of Ivan Sarnoff was missing, Ryan was processing Eric's car when he found a gun and Frank was at the lab taking Sharova into custody, when he ran into Stetler. Horatio was starting to grow weary and if his team felt anything like him, they were all tired and ready to quit. Despite that feeling they would carry on and not sleep a wink 'til they knew every resource had been exhausted and Eric was found.

Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, Horatio's phone rang. Gripping it in his hand, he tried to postpone more bad news to be delivered and trudged through the glades for the umpteenth time before his phone rang once more.

"Horatio Caine." He answered in a weak and tired voice.

"It's Frank, we got a problem. Stetler suspended Ryan."

Horatio was fed up, he had neither the patience nor time to deal with Stetler. He was through with this and was going to settle it once and for all.

"Suspended?" Horatio hissed "for what?"

"He's claiming some new evidence regarding Ryan and the Gantry boy's kidnapping has come to light. He says it has put Ryan's true involvement into question. I think he's just pulling at straws to get to you. We thoroughly investigated the kidnapping and Ryan story checked out, he was clean."

"We did, do you have any knowledge of the source of this information?" H asked.

"No, I'm not definite. However, when I was walking to booking and first ran into the Stetler, I forgot to mention that rat Saris was buzzing around." Frank sighed heavily; all those problems were started to pile up. "What do you want me to do now? Should I see what I can do to help Ryan or deal with Sharova?"

"I can't afford to lose another one of my team; I'm already short staffed as it is, I need Ryan working this case. We have enough on Sharova to hold him over night, he's not going anywhere. See what you can do to help Ryan without Stetler having any knowledge of it. I'm heading to the lab now. I'll deal with Stetler." Horatio hung up.

Trudging out the water, he walked towards his hummer, hoping that during his ride to the lab he would cool down. He was fed up with both the Russian's and Stetler's games. If Stetler had appeared in his sight at the current moment he would not have been safe from the fury of Horatio Caine. He probably would have received a couple of well deserved punches to the face. With a deep breath H got into the hummer and prayed to God for help to maintain his usually calm persona; violence would only make matters worse. He put the key into the ignition and sped to the Crime Lab.


	9. Hurts Like

**Author Notes:** Hey I'm finally updating after almost two years. All my story lines are stuck in seasons 7, but that was the newest season when I first posted my stories and what can I say I really like season 7.

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**Chapter 9**

**Hurts Like**

Frank paced break room as he waited for Horatio to arrive at the Crime Lab. His mind was could find no rest. He was exhausted and tired. He'd pulled a double the day before and was functioning on only three hours of sleep. He actually had planned to call it quits early today before everything happened. Now it was 3:00am, much later than his originally planned to clock out time, he'd down so much coffee it was as if he'd become immune to effects of the caffeine.

He was being blackballed by the IA, last thing hear was Ryan was being held in an interrogation room other than that he hadn't learned anything about this new evidence against Ryan. He was still pacing when someone came behind him and touch his shoulder, it startled him. It was Natalia and she was in worse shape than him. She mumbled something indistinctively to Frank then floppy onto the couch and started to fade in and out of sleep.

Frank was looking at her, wishing he could do the same when someone else walked into the room. It was Horatio. He walked silently to the coffeemaker and poured himself a cup. He leaned back into the corner in looked into the cup without a word. Frank starred at him a tad bit uneasy, he'd known Horatio to be a man of few words at times, but this silence scared him. The look in Horatio's eyes was different than any Frank has ever seen before. It was angry tangled with sadness and a hint for remorse and betrayal, but there was something more in his eyes something that Frank couldn't quite read. It was the burning need of vengeance.

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His head slumped down with his eyes barely ajar, Eric sat in the dark. Despite all the pains and aches that were surging through his body his mind thought only of Calleigh. Most of the events of the last few hours were a blur in his mind, but one, it was the look in her eyes when she saw him. The look pierced worse the four bullets in his shoulder.

As he faded in and out of consciousness, each time he closed his eyes he'd see Calleigh's eyes. They were so full of hurt, confusion, betrayal and disbelief. He'd lied to her and she found out in the worse possible way. He'd witnessed that look in her eyes he'd seen many of times before, but this time it killed him to know he caused it.

There was no way out of this one, he was sure their new blossoming romance was now on rocky roads. It seemed like an irrelevant thought in the current situation he was in, considering his life was in eminent danger, but he couldn't get his mind off of Calleigh; thoughts of her consumed him. He didn't want to be one of the guys who disappointed her, but that was exactly what he turned out to be.

He head was reeling, his body hurt all over, he start fading in and out of consciousness, each time deeper than the last. He felt like he was dying and he probably was, judging from the blood still seeping from his wounds. The only reason he could maintain consciousness for the short period of time because he told himself he was going to pull through for Calleigh. He couldn't leave this world with knowing that he hurt her, He told himself he had to live long enough even if he only could manage an I'm sorry, he owed her that much.

"I'm so sorry" he said aloud, although he was aware he was alone. He was starting to lose his battle to stay awake and was starting to fading. He could now feel the full effects of his injury and it hurt like hell, he didn't know if he could wake up from this one. His mind begin to scramble, confused and distraught he called out "Calleigh" tear pouring down his face "Calleigh"

Just then a beam of light shined into the room. Eric shielded his eyes from the light. A woman stepped out of the light and reached out her hand and spoke. "Eric"

* * *

"_Yeah, leave it up to Stetler to pick the most public interrogation room"_ Ryan thought as he waited for Stetler, though it was late the crime lab was busying with activity passerby starred at him wondering what actually he was doing in there. Ryan had been sitting in interrogation room for about an hour; he was getting more irritated with each second that passed. Stetler was taking his sweet time joining Ryan the interrogation room. Stetler was wasting his time, precious time he could be using to find Eric, but he was stuck playing Stetler's juvenile games. He was feed up, he was leaving. Just as he got up to leave, Rick Stetler was turning the corner heading straight for the interrogation room. This didn't stop Ryan; just the same he headed for the door.

"Going somewhere? What do you have to hide?" Rick said, meeting Ryan at the door as he attempted to exit. Stetler put his hand on his chest to stop him.

Ryan rolled his eyes and let out an annoyed sigh. "Stetler, I don't know what game you're playing or what you plan to accuse me for I've been waiting in this room for Lord know how long and my fellow colleagues and friend is out missing. I don't have time for this" He pushed passed Stetler.

Stetler don't try to stop him physically this time "You are such a hypocrite" He hissed loudly at Ryan "I knew about your little Gantry stunt, you're suppose up hold the law and you think you can just break it because Horatio Caine is so good a sweet talking the boss. You're all a bunch of criminals" Stetler yelled, Ryan froze and everyone in the hall stopped and stared at the exchange between the two men. Ryan charged briskly up to Stetler, he wanted to punch, he wanted to rip that smirk face, it was right they took his weapon. Channeling restraint only God could give him he held back, the only weapon he used was his tongue.

"Horatio has more dignity in his pink finger than you, criminal, criminal really? How dare make such accusations; you have no ground, no ground to stand on, the company you surround yourself with people like Ron Saris, yeah he he's the cream of the crop." Ryan pointed right at Stetler's face "The only crime we're guilty of is letting scum like you be a part of the force, Go to Hell, Rick." Ryan yelled at the arrogant agent and then turned to leave. Bystanders gasped at the Ryan reaction, watched Stetler's waited on him to reply

"Sure go ahead, Ryan run." Stetler replied in a weak, shaky voice "You're just scared so just go run to Horatio. Your suspension still stands, your done Ryan Wolfe. I got evidence I have against you this time." He yelled after Ryan, waving the manila folder at Ryan. Ryan charged back at Stetler and ripped the folder from Stetler's hand. "This is what I think of your evidence" with one swift motion he ripped the folder in two and trusted it and the air as he said "and your suspension. It won't stand ever." Through the flurry of shredded paper Ryan walked, this time for away for good, leaving the crowd in shock and Stetler to pick up the pieces.

* * *

Calleigh woke up; she reached over to the other side of the bed to wake Eric. Her hand grasped the air then fall to the bed, it was cold, no Eric. She sat up out of bed and looked around, no Eric.

"Eric" she called out "Eric" she run her hands though her hair and wiped the sleep from her eyes. Something wasn't right. She normally woke before Eric; sometimes she even had to brag him out of bed when he got a few too many extra winks of sleep. She looked over at the clock, it was blinking twelve o'clock. _"Power must have gone out"_ she thought to herself.

"Eric" she got out of bed and walked towards the bathroom, she opened the door. Suddenly someone come from behind and grab her by her waist and pulled her backwards. She let out a scream and began to kick; her captor turned her around to face him. It was Eric he was smiling at her, she stopped struggling and he released her from his grasp. Then he pulled back her into a warm embrace and went in for a long deep kiss. His closeness was so comforting, he broke away softy caressing her cheek. She smiled at him, he returned the gesture then she pushed him away, suddenly she was so angry at him.

"Where were you? Why are you up so early?" she questioned him as she moved passed him and walked into the bedroom once more, annoyed.

"I was uh just restless this morning so I took a walk" He looking at her confused, she shot him a look and crossed her arm around her chest, she didn't believe him.

"What you don't trust me?" he laughed at her angry express he found so cute.

"What? Do you trust me Eric? Tell me the truth, where you with Sharova?" she snapped

"We can talk about this later, I got to go" he said now he was getting angry, he started to walk off.

"I can't let you do that" she said coldly.

She picked up a gun from a dresser nearby and pointed it at him, he looked at her in horror and shock before he could recover she shoot out a couple round into him. He offered her a pain expression then stumbled back into the bathroom and out of sight. Calleigh stood there holding the gun, shocked at what she just done, she run into the bathroom. There was blood all over the floor and Eric was gone, she searched frantic over the bathroom for him, but still no Eric.

"Nononononononono, Eric, Eric, ERIC"

Calleigh jerked up in bed, screaming Eric's name, drenched in sweat. She looked around the room. It was dark and the moon shone in through the window. She looked at the clock it read 3:00am. She put her hands to her face and up through her hair wiping the sweat from her brow and hugged her knees, willing herself not to cry. It was just a dream and although that's not how it happened, it didn't change the facts. She shot Eric and now he was missing and it was all her fault.

* * *

Eric reached out of the women's hand and she pulled him into the light. Once out of the room, two sets of hands grabbed him and lifted him on a gurney, which began to be wheeled down the halls. Still temporarily blinded by the brightness of the light he wasn't able to make out any of the faces that surrounded him. Voices spoke over him and hands moved rapidly around his body examining, removing and patching. Everything was a blur, so he called out for Calleigh once more. "Calleigh?" no one replied, but the woman who was still holding his hand squashed tighter.

He looked in the direction of the women who held his hand, but he couldn't see her face. He could only see a head of cascading blond locks and a face that was turned from him. As he started to fade out of consciousness he was lifted into the back of some type of vehicle and he lost hold of the woman's hands. He grasped for her hand once more and after a second of frantic grasping at air, he made contact with her hand once more. In the comfort of the warmth of her hand, he allowed himself fade into darkness knowing he was in good hands.

* * *

She finally built up enough strength to get out of bed and walked to the window and peeking though the curtain. She hugged herself tightly and walked over to the nightstand and grabbed her cell. No new messages, no new text and no new news on Eric. She walked into the bathroom and over to the sink, splashing water into her face a few times then wiping it clean. She looked at herself in the mirror and the face the greeted her was that for a stranger. Her face and eyes were red and puffy, she was paler than normal and her hair was still a wreck. She glared at herself a little longer before she exited the bathroom and walk to the kitchen and get a glass of water. Her body ached, it felt as if she'd just run an entire marathon. She walked into the living room and threw herself on the couch and soon she was asleep.

Now she was in the Everglades, she run to the edge on the water and as she reached the bank it began to crumble under she feet. Soon she was swimming, trying her best to reach the bank before it was too far gone, but with every stroke it got farther and farther. She saw a boat in the distance as they got closer they spotted her in the water and went to rescue her, when they got closer enough to reach her someone reached out and offered a hand, but she refused. The bank was still in view she could reach herself. The boat moved on, leaving her to swim to the bank alone.

Soon another boat came and head over to help her, she had been swimming for a time now and she was starting to get tired. This time she took the help when it was offered, but she would only let them take her as close as the bank as possible as then she would continue swimming to the bank on her own.

So as soon as she felt close enough, she got back into the water and tried to reach the bank, but as she reached it, it began the crumbled more rapidly and she was swimming once more. Soon another boat came, but this one didn't stop it moved right in front of her and hindered her from moving forward and the bank got farther and farther away. Now she was out in open water with no shore in sight, alone, treading to stay afloat.

Slowly she started to loss her strength and slip under, the water enclosed her and she began to drown. When she thought all hope was lost, someone pulled her back the surface. It was Eric, carried her back to the shore, finally she was on solid ground and she could breathe again.

And before long she was floating on air wrapped in Eric's arms, she was on top of the world and it was perfect then all of a sudden the world came crashing down, she lost her hold on Eric. She reached out to make contact once more, but found herself grasping for nothing. She reached and reached but nothing, she found her crashing to the ground, heading to disaster at full speed.

Calleigh jumped awake, almost falling off the couch in her wake. Another dream, she shook her head, she couldn't make complete sense of the dreams, but one thing was always the same, she'd loss Eric and end up alone.

* * *

Horatio took a long sip of his coffee letting out a long sigh, he was in deep thought. Through the day a bad situation had spiral out control and turned into a totally nightmare. He had sent Natalia and Frank home so they could get at least some rest before they had to return in the morning, he was going to need all the help could get. Through delivery via the office grapevine he had gotten wind of the Wolfe/Stetler pissing match that had taken place in the hall of the lab and with the chief out of the office it seems as if Stetler's accusation against Ryan were going to stick, for now. The searches for Eric brought forth no results, even a trace and it wasn't looking good. Horatio was typical strong and not easily broken, but right now he felt weak. He was already on the ground and he was continuing taking more blows. He only saw things getting worse, in the break room Horatio Caine braced himself for the storms he was going to have to face from both sides.

* * *

**Hope you enjoyed it, I will update soon. I promise no more two year breaks lol- Quitethefangirl**


	10. Running Scared

**Author Notes: Hey all, I hope you enjoy the chapter, had to rewrite it to add in Horatio's point of views. It took sometime (the little I have between school and work, which is pretty much nal) but it's done so hope you enjoy it. Hope you all had a Happy Thanksgiving this passed Thursday, my US readers. Happy Readings to all.**

* * *

**Chapter 10**

**Running Scared**

Calleigh readjusted her position on the couch and wiped the sleep from her eyes then scanning the living room, she spotted what she was looking for. The clock on the digital cable box read 10:30 am, She jump up, she was suppose to be work hours ago, she bolted to her room and grabbed her phone off the nightstand. 30 missed calls; she couldn't believe she didn't hear her phone, _"How hard was I sleeping?"_ she wondered to herself.

She strolled down the list of missed calls there were a couple from Horatio, but a majority of the calls were from Ryan. She called Horatio as she hurried to dress, as it rung Calleigh mind raced "_Did they find him? Is he alive? Or was he just calling because I didn't show this morning_? _God, how did I sleep so long?"_ her thoughts interrupted when Horatio picked up on the other line.

"Calleigh, is everything ok ma'am?" Horatio said through the phone.

"Um yeah, I'm sorry I-I over slept, I'm coming in now. Any news on Eric? D-did you find him?" she said in a rushed tone.

"We searched the glades and surrounding areas the entire night and side from the footprints, there's no sign of him, not even a trace of him. The cars already been" he paused, not sure if he should go into detail about the car, he decided it best to kept it short "processed, so now I'm going to see if I can get anything else from Sharova, right now those are the only leads we have."

"So how does it look?" Calleigh voice was small and little

"With no body on the scene, we can remain hopeful, for now. We've been searching the glades all night, they're doing a more thorough search of the water and see if anything turns up." He said

"Ok, I'll be there in 10" she replied

"Calleigh, really, didn't worry about it, take the day. I wasn't expecting you today anyways." Something was off about Horatio's voice, he was hiding something.

"No, I'm fine, really I'm need to work. I need a distraction. I'll go crazy if I don't get out this house, I have a job to do, just like everyone else. I need to do my part" she said firmly.

There was silence on the other line. Finally Horatio spoke. "Calleigh, there something else, Stetler on a witch hunter," He sighed heavily "His coming down on the team hard. We're all under review for recent behaviors and actions and he's claiming we break protocol on more than one occasion. He's threatened that some of you could be facing charges and your name is on the top of the list, after only Delko's. Ryan found guns in the trunk of his car. He's already managed to suspend Ryan and he's looking to charge Eric and possibly you with for a criminal crime."

Calleigh was too shocked to even speak. If it was someone who knew how to make a situation worse, hands down it was Rick Stetler. He been trying for a long time to break Horatio team apart, but this was the lowest blow he could ever throw. Right now the team in the middle of searching for a missing colleague, being under review would cause more stress and hinder them from doing their jobs effectively.

Calleigh remained quiet, so Horatio started to speak again.

"So why didn't you take the today to regroup and find the best way the deal with the situation, so you can be prepared to face Stetler in the morning. We're going to take this one step at a time" She wasn't sure if it was stress or uncertainty in Horatio's voice, but she knew the reason of the tone. Horatio know this wasn't one of Stetler idle threats or sly tricks. This time Stetler's threats, though they may not all be legitimate, they were back by powers greater than Horatio's and this time he was coming for blood. They needed to be prepared now more than ever.

"Take care of yourself ma'am" He said

"Ok, I will. Thanks Horatio, thanks for everything" she managed to whisper then ended the call.

Calleigh sit down to ponder her conversion with Horatio. She was freaking out._ "He's threatened that some of us could be facing charges and your name is on the top of the list after only Delko's" _he said. _"Ryan found guns in the trunk of his car. He's already manage to suspend Ryan and he's looking to charge Eric and possible you with for a criminal crime"_ Those words cause her great stress; she raked her mind for a reason why her name was on the top of Stetler's list or why Ryan was suspended or how Eric or her could be facing criminal charges.

Of the entire team, Calleigh had the least blemishes on her record. Everything she ever did at work was above board. She always went above and beyond the call of duty. Despite the fact that her relationship with Eric was against department policies, she felt her job controlled too much her personal life and it was worth the risk and at work their relationship was nothing but, professional.

With the exception of casual harmless flirting, she was sure everyone in the lab was guilty of, she and Eric never showed a hint of intimacy on the job.

It made her wonder if Stetler was spying on her, but deem the idea paranoia, _"that would be too electric, even for him." _She thought. She decided to go for a run to clear her head. When she was stressed a good run always was a great outlet. She got dressed and grabbed a quick breakfast, put on her mp3 player and hit the road.

She started off with a walk then began to pace then broke into a run, she went around the block. The more she picked up her pace the more her mind ran rampant, this week was just overwhelming both mentally and physically and with Stetler on the prowl she was sure there was worst to come. Her worry for Eric was consuming her.

Her mind was a mixture of thoughts, thoughts of Eric, work, Stetler's reasoning or logic, her next steps and the team. The adrenaline rushing through her veins only made the situation worst, she felt like a rookie runner, normally she could run seven miles with breaking a sweat and now she barely even hit the two mile marker and she was breathless and fatigued.

She halted, bent over, put her hands on her knee and took in a few long breathes. Suddenly she felt a pair of eye watching her, she straighten herself and looked around there was no obvious surveillance. _"Maybe Stetler is spying on us, he's such a creeper"_

There was an elderly man sitting on the porch watching only the words on the morning _New York Times_, a couple kissing farewell before they went off on their separate morning commutes and a hand full of other people who were otherwise occupied with other thing than spying on Calleigh Duquesne.

She relaxed but couldn't shake the feeling. Out of the blue she saw a flash of color in the corner of her eye; it was some kind of large vehicle. It swiftly pulled alongside her. She thought surely she was going to be grabbed and thrown in the back of it. It startled her, she remembered the last time she was kidnapped and she had no intentions on repeating the incident.

Calleigh always was packing heat, even on a run. She quietly pulled out her gun and announced herself "Miami-Dade PD" she was panicking and was barely able to breathe. Aiming her gun at the window of the Passenger's side, but no one reached out to grab her. Slowly the passenger's window rolled down.

* * *

Horatio placed down his phone. The problems were stacking up and he wasn't sure which one to fix or if they were ever able to be fixed. He was operating on the little sleep he managed between searching the glades, however his naps where restless and unsettling. He took refuge in his office because he was sure Stetler was stalking the hall in search of him. He had managed to avid him thus far, but he wasn't going to press his luck, however he wasn't going to let the threat of running into Stetler keep him locked in the lab.

Natalia and Frank had taken over the search at the glades, so he could interrogate Sharova for any leads. So he collected himself and exited his office. He walked out without worry of Stetler spotting him and headed to the booking to retrieve Sharova to interrogate him.

He made it to booking without incident, he requested Sharova be brought to interrogations and made his way there. Halfway to interrogations his luck ran out, he spotted Stetler. Horatio spotted him before Stetler was aware of his presents: he was looking down at a file. Horatio did not let this change his course. He processed down the hall, he wasn't afraid of Stetler and his childish tactics. He may seem as if he was winning, but in the end he knew justice would prevail.

"Rick" Horatio greeted the man with a tilt of the head as he passed. Rick spun around to face him.

"Lieutenant Caine" he said with a big smile. "Looking a little under the weather, are we?" he commented about Horatio's tired appearance.

"Yes, it happens when you do actually work." Horatio snapped.

"Actually work?" Stetler laughed sarcastically "Actually work like you buddies Ryan and Eric do?" He remarked, smirking.

The people in the hall stopped, waiting for another show produced by Rick Stetler. Horatio just smirked. Rick was furious he wasn't getting a reaction other than a smirk from Caine, so Stetler continued, moving closer to Horatio.

"Criminal Work? Yes I got you this time, Horatio. You may feel protected as you sit on your high horse, but this time I've got you. I may not be able to take down you, but I can take down your team. Which will leaves you equally destroyed." He hissed quietly at Horatio.

"Rick, what is Criminal is that they give scum like you a badge. Take down my team? I'd like to see you try" H said calmly to him and walked.

Rick was steaming; he didn't even get to him. He didn't seem the least bit scared; he was unfazed by his words. He wasn't going to let Horatio have the last word.

"Well, well Ryan suspended so who's winning now, Horatio" he yelled after him.

Horatio stride didn't even falter, he continued on to the interrogation room. Stetler was furious.

* * *

"Hey, hey Calleigh don't shot, relax" it was Ryan. He was flailing his arms and scared, hoping Calleigh would lower the gun she had aimed at his head, she did.

"God Ryan, what the-" She started as she opened the door of Ryan's SUV and took a seat "Why are you doing here?" she snapped.

"Horatio said you weren't coming in today. I called you like 20 times this morning and you didn't answer and I got a little worried, ok? So I was in the area and I stopped by your house to check on you to make sure your ok, but you weren't there. I was preparing to pull out of the block when I noticed you running and then you point a gun at me, Calleigh" he shouted a little.

"Well Ryan, you know, I'm doing fine, just great. Yesterday, I accidently shot Eric and now he's missing. On top of that, every time I close my eye my mind replays the scenario in my head all over again and it haunts my dreams and today, today I get a morning call that I'm the most wanted in Stetler witch hunt and I could be facing criminal charges. I'm doing great." She yelled at him throwing her hand in the air, she leaned back on the seat and ran her hands though her hair.

The tension was high and they both were huffing and puffing. Ryan broke out laughing, Calleigh shot him a glare. "And what are you laughing about? Because I cease to see the humor in the situation" Calleigh said irritated

"You," she shot him a death glare, so he quickly he explained himself "or me, this exactly Stetler wants, right?"

She laughed, embarrassed by her unnecessary outburst of anger towards Ryan. "Yeah it is" she replied quietly. "Horatio told me that Stetler had you suspended" she quietly.

"Yeah, you heard" Ryan said, looking down "but I'm not afraid of his accusation, all my action are and will be justified to him, showing I did nothing wrong. I'm not going to let his "kick you when we're down" tactics work. Tensions are high right now, we need to be careful, we need to stick together more than ever and we need to stay strong. Ok?" He put his arm around Calleigh, smiling at her reassuringly "We're going to get through this, we'll find Eric, Stetler will make a fool out himself again and thing will be back to normal before you know"

Ryan thought words of reassure were necessary, not only to reassure Calleigh but to reassure himself. Although he know he was innocent he trying his best not to be scared to death about the suspension and the search for Eric weighted heavy on his mind. Though he was not as broken up as Calleigh, considering the fact that his relationship was on a totally different level than that of Calleigh and Eric's, he was still torn up and stressed about the whole situation. "So I'm sorry I raising my voice, Cal."

"Apology accepted, Ryan. I'm sorry for yelling" she hesitated then add quickly "and for pointing a gun at you, but don't you ever sneak up on me like that again, Ryan Wolfe understand? After being kidnapped and almost carjacked at gunpoint you get a little paranoid" she pointed her finger waving it in his.

"Yeah, something I'll most definitely take that into consideration in the future" he laughed, he know Calleigh was a force to be reckon with.

"Soooooooo, you're good?" he asked

"Yeah, I'm good" she smiled

"Well, unlike you" her laughed, wearing arrogant Wolfe smirk on his face "I'm on the clock, you want a ride home? You're looking a little run down Duquesne?"

It amazed Calleigh; despite the circumstances Ryan was still able to maintain a sense of humor. She smiled at him

"I thought you were suspended?" Calleigh asked looking at Ryan quizzically.

"Calleigh, as you know I work for the county and I'm not a department supervisor like you. I can't afford to not have a second job. I work security for time to time; I set up a couple of jobs to occupy my inconvenient extra free time" He said

"I can understand that and yes, I'd love a ride, Mr. Wolfe. What can I say it's been one of those weeks." With he pulled off toward the Duquesne residents.

* * *

"I know nothing" Alexander Sharova said to Horatio. Horatio had been interrogating him for the last hour and had gotten nothing. Horatio felt as if he was asking the same questions over and over.

"You mean you were in the car with Eric and you had no clue why he was there or how he found you? You know nothing?" Horatio said. The man was showing every sign of a lair, but he wouldn't break.

"Is Ivan Sarnoff still alive? Where is he body" Horatio questioned, Sharova said nothing.

"How is Eric involved? Do you care nothing for your son? He's missing and you don't even care. He saved your life and you're not even worth the air you breathe." Horatio hissed at him. Sharova looking at Horatio with frighten eyes, he remained silent. This was pointless Sharova cared more about keeping the secrets of Russian mobs than he care about his son.

"Fine, if I find you know anything and something happens to Eric, because you're afraid of the mob. You better pray they get to you first. Take him" he hissed at Alexander. He motioned for the two cadets to remove Sharova from the room. Sharova stood, looked bewilder into Horatio's eyes, as if he was sympathetic he couldn't help. The cadets cuffed him and grabbed his arms and hauled him toward the door. Right before they exited, Sharova halted, pulling against the cadet. He looked Horatio straight in the eyes.

"Your search for Eric is pointless, Eric Delko doesn't matter." The cadets tugged him back, yanking him out of the room.

Horatio seat there, pondering what was said. There was a certain look of terror in Sharova's eye as he spoke those words and it frightened Him. He worried if Sharova's words rung true.

* * *

**Thanks for Reading- Quitethefangirl**


	11. In The Crosshairs

**Author Notes: **New chapter yay! Totally edited it in class lol

* * *

11. In The Crosshairs

In spite of the reasoning for the day off Calleigh enjoyed the little break. Normally her days off were spent doing stuff any responsible adults did to keep their house in order like paying bills, restocking the fridge, running other errands and cleaning their gun collection. If she were any other stereotypical woman in her position they would spend the evening watching sappy romance movies and eating ice cream for comfort, but Calleigh wasn't any other stereotypical woman and she spent day at the shooting range. She rented the biggest gun with the biggest kick and shot round after round till closing time.

The next morning, when she woke she felt so refreshed, ready to face the world, ready to face Stetler, ready to face anything. She arrived at the Crime Lab in a record of time, arriving an hour earlier than she was expected. Hoping to have some time to settle in before facing Stetler.

As she walked towards the door the Crime Lab her phone rung, it was Natalia.

"Hey Natalia" she smiled into the phone "what's up?"

"Hey Cal, you here yet?" Natalia voice said from the phone

Calleigh arrive at the door and began to reach for the handle to open it "Yes, I wanted to get a little settled in before meeting with the IAB department"

"Yeah, about that I would suggest using the other door" but Natalia's warning was too little too late. Calleigh had already opened the door and entered the lab to be greeted by the IAB welcoming committee, Stetler along with two other IAB agents and a couple of cadets stood in her path. Natalia stood in the hall off to the distance, phone still to her ear with a sympathetic look on her face.

"Yeeaah th-thanks got to go" Calleigh said then closed her phone looking at the group before her with a stunned and irritated look on her face.

"Been looking from you, Duquesne." Stetler said in an unnecessary loud voice.

She don't have to look to know that all eyes were on them, both coworkers and citizens alike. She felt like a convicted murderer taking a perp walk down the hall. She briskly walked up the Stetler with an anger expression on her face, when she got face to face with him and confronted him in a low harsh voice. "What is this, Rick? This is highly inappropriate" she hissed.

"Oh this" Rick step back gesturing at the group "It's just to say" he moved back to his place respectively in her face and whispered "it's no sweet talking your way out of the one, Duquesne. There's no way of avoiding this one. I've got you" the tension in the room was raising.

Calleigh pointed her finger in Rick face and said "Rick, you can go to-"

Horatio appeared from nowhere, stepping in before things got any uglier. "Rick," he said in a warning manner as he stepped between Duquesne and Stetler. "Maybe you should give the lady some space, I'm sure she'll" he looked down "make your appointment to a timely manner. Excuse us this meeting is over" Horatio said in a normal tone, he put his hand on Calleigh's back and guided her away from Stetler and his entourage, intentionally bumping Stetler in the process.

"Thanks" Calleigh whispered to him, she glared back at Stetler and shot him a look.

He nodded and guided her further down the hall. When he was sure he was out of ear shot he removed his hand from her back and stopped. He looked down then spoke. "Ma'am, I need you to keep a leveled head on this one. Stetler is playing a game I refuse to play. Our main concern is doing our job, so feed IAB department whatever they want to keep them off our backs, but finding Eric is top priority."

Calleigh nodded in agreement to Horatio's words. Horatio then walked off back towards the front door.

"So this is war?" Calleigh said. It was more for a statement than a question.

"Yes, it is and I intend to" he paused and put on his shade "be the one standing when the smoke clears" then he continued towards the front door. Calleigh lean up against the wall and closed her eyes, taking in Horatio words and promising herself not to fall prey to Stetler's silly tactics.

She straightened herself and continued down the hall heading to the break room for a cup of coffee. She waved at Valera, who was busy running test in the lab, when she reached the break room Natalia was there to greet her.

"Hey" she said "sorry the warning was late, Horatio said you were coming in at 8."

Calleigh walked over to the coffee maker and poured herself a cup. "Yeah, you know me always the early bird and to think Stetler would let me settle in. How long were they waiting for me? Where they standing there the whole time?"

"Stetler was busying him in the lobby all morning doing nothing. I think he even went as far as having a cadet posted outside for call in when you approached, talk about no life, right?" Natalia laughed, earning a smile from Calleigh.

"So" she added in a more serious tone "how are you holding up?" she looked at Calleigh with genuine concern in her eyes.

"I'm, I'm ok, I'm um" she stammered "I'm better" she said a clearer more certain tone. She had felt so exposed already. She had cried in front of Horatio, Frank and a crowd of cadets, she cried on Ryan's shoulder, if she went into more details with Natalia she was sure she'd start crying again. She needed to stay strong; she told Horatio that she'd keep it together.

She saw a hurt look flash in Natalia eyes for her emotional lock out and it made her feel guilty. Natalia wasn't being nosy she was just concerned. So Calleigh explained her curtness.

"I'm sorry" she said "It just that if I talk about it, I'll cry and I've been crying enough these days." She laughed "I blame myself for this whole thing and I need to keep my emotions under wraps so I can do my job more effectively" she smile at Natalia, Natalia reluctantly smiled back.

"I understand, but it's not your fault, if you need to talk you can call me anytime, Ok?"

"Sure, thanks Natalia" she said

"You're welcome, Cal. Well I got to go, I have some evidence to process" Natalia finished off her coffee and exited the room.

Calleigh sit in the break room until it was time for her meeting with IAB. As much as she wanted to stall Horatio said she'd be there in a timely manner she so would.

"_I won't fuel that fire"_ she thought as she made her way to Stetler's office.

"Rick," she said as she knocked on the door that was half way open, she waited a few seconds and when he didn't open it, she slipped in.

He was seating at his desk, pen and pad in hand, finishing up a phone call when she entered the room. He gave her the "one second" finger without even looking up at her and continued his call.

"Sure, sure, yes" he said into the phone "yes, will do will do, ok bye" then he end his phone call.

"Ms. Duquesne" he said looking up at her "I have to finish up here then I'll meet you in interrogation room 1A" he looked down and busied himself once more. Calleigh stood there and stared at him.

"Is there something else?" he asked her looking up again.

"Yeah, your office is a well-equipped meeting place, so can't we just have the meeting here?" She asked.

"Um no" he said abruptly

"Might I ask why?" Calleigh asked annoyed by Stetler terseness.

"Because we're meeting in interrogation room 1A" Rick said then picked up his phone and dialed it. Calleigh had a few words she liked to tell Stetler, but she remembered Horatio's words and decided it was best to hold her tongue. _"Don't play his games"_ she told herself.

Calleigh headed towards the interrogation room, fully aware of Stetler's reasoning of choosing it as a meeting place. It was one of his usual tricks, he wanted to take down Horatio and his team and he wanted to do it publicly for the whole department to see and 1A was the best room for that. It was sandwiched between the most heavily trafficked halls in the entire lab. Calleigh entered the empty room and took a seat, waiting for Stetler.

She sit there alone, aware of the eyes that stared in as they passed by, minutes went by and no Stetler.

She drummed her fingers on the table. She was starting to get impatience. She looked at her watch it read 8:30a.m. She had been waiting for thirty minutes and still no Stetler. She had more important things to do than wait from Stetler, so she got up and exited the room. Half way down the hall she ran into Stetler.

"Going somewhere?" He asked

"No" she said turning back toward the direct of 1A. "_Feed them whatever they want"_ Horatio word played in her head.

"Good" he said opening the door of 1A and walking in "Shall we begin?" he looked at her offering a huge grin.

"Sure" she said walking in the room, offering an artificially smiling back.

"Well then let's began"

* * *

Horatio sit in his office, accepting the facts. All search options have been exhausted and besides the finding in the car there were no new leads in the search. No trace, no trails, no evidence of where Eric was or who had him. However, he know one thing for sure the Russian mob was involved. He wasn't sure how or what angle they were playing, but he was sure they had Eric. He knew that with the lack of physical evidence someone was holding him and Eric was alive, for now. Horatio was in deep thought when Frank interrupted.

"Hey H, the search team in wrapping up and heading back, so I'm back in the office for the time being. You need me for anything?" Frank said ducking into the office.

Horatio snapping back into reality look at him blankly. He was unsure what it was that Frank had said.

"Sorry Frank, what going on?" he said blink distractedly.

"It's ok, I understand, Horatio. You need me around the office?" He repeated, he was worried about Horatio. He was so distant even more then he normally was.

"Not currently Frank, thanks" he said, still distracted.

"Well then I'm going to look into who's hold Sarnoff body hostage, Natalia is looking into the trace she coll-"

Horatio cut off Frank. "Hostage? Hostage, hostage, hostage, hostage." he repeated over and over, not to Frank, but like he was talking to himself aloud. He pulled out his cell and looked through his missed calls, Frank looked at him confused.

"What is it?" Frank asked a little frustrated for being left out of the loop.

"Frank stay by your phones, tell the call center be on the lookout for a ransom call. I want to be phoned in personal on each call and tell them to setup a trace. I think their holding Eric hostage." He knew it was a long stretch, typical a requested would have made a request by now, but he wasn't going to give in just yet. "Tell all CSI's to have their phone on them at all time and to be waiting for a call."

Horatio got up swiftly and exited the room, leaving confused Frank in his office.

* * *

Unlike Stetler's usual tactics he wasted no time beating around the bush, he jump right in with his questions. As he quickly took his seat he bluntly asked "What is your relationship to Eric Delko?"

She barely had entered the room and he was shooting a question at her, she offered him a stunned and confused look.

"Excuse me?" Calleigh replied slightly shaking her head as she took her seat. She was confused at the reasoning for the meeting. Was it about her and Eric relationship? She was expecting it to be about her performance or the shooting and her part in the events that lead to Eric's current situation, not about her personal life or her relationship with Eric.

"Ms. Duquesne, just answer the question" he sighed and waving his hand at her.

"We're –we're colleagues and friends" she stammered "what does this have to do with anything?" she asked still confused at where Stetler was going with this.

Instead of answering her question Stetler stood and pulled out some pictures from a folder and placed them on the table before her. There was a picture of her and Eric sharing a kiss outside the Immigration Detention Center, pictures for them smiling at each other at a crime scene, a picture of them leaving for work in the morning exiting Calleigh's house together holding hands, another of them kissing outside the front door of Eric's apartment.

"Oh and my favorite" he said with a smirk pulling out one more picture. It was in Calleigh's bathroom Calleigh was dressed a robe and Eric had a towel around his waist still wet from the shower, holding Calleigh in his arms. "Would you like to change your answers or do you not remember these?" He asked sarcastically, Calleigh glared at him with fire in her eyes.

"Where did you get these? How did you get these? Are you spying on me?" she felt so exposed "I can't believe this, that you would spy on my personal life" she pointed at him "how dare you? I don't have to account for or explain you what I do off the clock. This is highly unethical, Stetler" she all but yelled.

"Spying on you? Don't flatter yourself, the where and how I got the photo is irrelevant, just know they come from a very legitimate and reliable source and yeah this would be unethical to look into your personal life without a reason," he slowly started to pace the room as he spoke. "You work of the police department, Ms. Duquesne and we have rules, like it or not there rules you have to follow. Obviously you think these rules are just guideline and do whatever you want, which rise the question what other rules do you not follow? What laws, Ms. Duquesne?" He pulled out another set for photos and put them on the table. "Here's my reason" This set was of Calleigh and Eric arguing outside the Crime Lab with Calleigh holding a manila folder in a one hand, another photo of Calleigh opening the folder and revealing a photo of Sharova in a car to Eric and several more photos of the argument as it progressed. "Lover's quarrel or something more?" he asked.

"We were discussing the case" Calleigh said in annoyance in her voice, still on able to believe what was happening.

"Right, discussing 'the case'?" Stetler smiled doing the quotation sign with his finger for dramatic effect pausing from his pacing.

"It looks like" he continue "it look like your withholding evidence, hindering a police investigation and breaking the law" he slightly raised his voice; he started moving around the room once more.

"What?" Calleigh asked disgusted "we were discussing a case, a case we were working on together, I was following protocol"

Stetler laughed "Really," he stopped pacing and bent over the table, his face inches from Calleigh's "is that true? Because looks to me your warning Eric that his dear old Russian mobster dad is involved in the stage accident that take two innocent lives," he glared icily into her eyes and continued "a cop's life, but maybe that's just me?" he whispered in a merciless tone.

"I wasn't WARNING" she yelled, Stetler was starting to get to her, accusing her, accusing her of beings a dirty cop, he made her felt like she was a dirty cop. "I wasn't warning him" she said in a lower smaller voice.

"Then what were you doing, Ms. Duquesne?" Stetler asked in an elevated patronizing tone "If you weren't warning him. What were you doing? Because if you were 'following protocol' upon discovering Sharova's involvement you would have went to Horatio or any other member on the team who doesn't have relations with the accused, you would have had Eric pulled from the case and brought Sharova in. You should know THAT'S protocol."

Calleigh was furious and wanted nothing more than to giving a piece of her mind. She felt the interrogation style had changed from "meeting" with an employee of the department to interrogating a criminal, but she maintained her cool as best as she possibly could and answered him.

"I went to Eric because we were working the case together and I thought he should know. Though he and Sharova are blood related their relationship is nothing more that, he barely knows the man." Tear were wailing up in her eyes and her voice was shaky "He knows the law and he wouldn't break it" she said in a defeated voice, unsure if she even believed her own words. Stetler laughed coldly.

"Maybe that's what you tell yourself, maybe those were you intention, maybe Eric fooled you like he fooled everyone else. Maybe your better judgment was blinded by love and maybe no one really knows Eric Delko. It wouldn't be the first time Horatio had a traitor in the camp."

Calleigh looked at him, now she was truly confused now. He drew back from the table and pulled out a single photo and placed it in front of Calleigh, it was a picture of Eric and Sharova talking on a pier, Sharova was holding a fish pole and Eric was holding a photo, Calleigh's photo she showed him at the lab earlier, her evidence.

"Now were you aware of this?" he asked in a normal almost sympathetic tone.

"No" she said in a barely audible whisper as a single tear ran down her eyes, Stetler had thrown his lowest blow.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, please review - Quitethefangirl**


	12. Exposed

**Author Notes: **This chapter took forever, but its done. Thanks so much for all the reviews it really, motivated me to write.

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12. Exposed

Calleigh was defeated; she let him get to her. She couldn't believe she let Rick Stetler get to her. The "meeting" went unless than ideal, it was more like an epic disaster. It was confusing, emotionally straining and an utter train wreck. There were several things Calleigh wasn't sure for anymore, but one thing she was certain, the war Stetler and Horatio were fight, Stetler was the forerunner. The picture of Eric and Sharova on the pier was burn in her mind, why was he there, why was he there with him? Why didn't he tell her about it? How did Stetler get those pictures of them? Some of the pictures she had seen previously. Stetler had back her into a corner with no escape she didn't expect that Eric wasn't telling her things, she felt so betrayed. After Stetler showed her that the one people she thought she could trust had seemingly betrayed her, the wall begin to crumb.

"Ms. Duquesne I believe you, I know you didn't know about this meeting between Eric and Sharova. I know you want to tell me the truth. If you're really innocent tell me and the evidence will clear your name." He said a much lower and almost comforting voice. The picture had settled her, she was losing she composer. She was tearing up, all the emotions that she was trying to suppress were coming back to the surface, but the comforting tone from Stetler was confusing. Why was he trying to be sweet now? Why was he trying to act like his on her side? "Let start from the beginning" he said. "What was your relationship with Eric Delko?"

She was still shaking, but she was going to be honest. How worst could it be? "We're involved" she couldn't believe that she had to have this conversation with Stetler.

"How involved are you? Romantically?" he paused and looked at her "physically?"

She was starting to get annoy by his prying, it was too closed "Well why did you ask your photographer about that?" she snapped.

"Well then," He smirked and wrote something down on his pad. "Can you say that you didn't believe that Eric was involved with the Russian mob?"

"Yes, I do believe that. Eric's a good cop, I know he was at the armory because he had a good reason to be there, I'm just not sure why."

"Did you ever suspect that Eric was involved with the mob?"

"No, I can't say I expected that. I'm sure he had a good reason for being at the armor"

"Ok" Stetler said writing something down "Did you suspect Eric had a relationship with his father?"

"No, didn't" she said quietly.

"What are your views on Alexander Sharova?" he asked.

"I thinks he's dirty, I didn't trust him. He's involved with the Russian Mob. Despite all that of what he said to Eric, he is not innocent in my book." She said angrily. This integration was so confusing, first he was accusing and then comforting and now he was trying to get her side like he was actually cared and want to know the actually truth rather than stretch it like he typically did.

"When you shot at the car, did you know Eric was driving?" he asked.

"No, didn't know" she said.

"Why did you shot at the car?" He asked.

"Thought they were trying to flee the scene, a lot of bullets were flying and it was a tense situation happening with only a few seconds in between." She said.

"Ok" he said "Are you sure you didn't know it was him?" He asked again. Calleigh looked at him confused, way was he asking this question again.

"No, that answer is not going to change, if I knew it was him I wouldn't have shot him." She said annoyed.

"I'm sorry, can you repeat that? If you what?" Stetler asked.

"What?" Calleigh asked getting angry.

"If you what?" he asked.

"If I knew "She said coldly "I wouldn't have shot him."

"Ok then we done here" Rick said and got up walking out the room. Calleigh look at him in disbelief, still confused.

* * *

Rick Stetler sit in his office and he was beaming, he could not be happier; the thorn in his side that was Horatio Caine was looking like it was finally going to be removed. He initially had hired Ron Saris as an informant just to piss off Horatio, but lately Saris was providing him with crucial evidence that would finally take down the high and mighty CSI dayshift team. No longer would they thwart him; thanks to Saris for letting out some of his inner paparazzi, he had pictures and proof. He didn't deserve to be passed up for his Lieutenant rank by that fiery head fiend and he intended to set that straight for once and for all.

"One down, three more to go" He said to himself. Ryan was only the first to go because with the team already lacking a member, one less CSI would really put the strain on Horatio. His plan with Calleigh was a little bit more sophisticated than that, but she was the key. Right now she didn't know where she stood, but she was right were Stetler wanted her. He pulled a little tape from his bag and pulled a pen from his desk to write on the tape. He looked down at his handy work it said Calleigh.

* * *

After the interrogation Calleigh tried to get back to work, but she was so distracted. It was something about the way Stetler interrogated her that she found was a little bit off. She couldn't explain it or describe it, but something was awry she could feel it. It was different from any typical interrogation she'd ever learned. Grant it each officer practiced the interrogation styles differently in their own unique way, but in this situation that wasn't the case. He was all over the place asking question over again and rewording them, it bugged her. Her frustration was getting the best of her. It was taking an hour to dismantle a gun that would typical take her a second in her sleep. She chucked it across the room. Those pictures they reminded her of the photos taken by Cameron West when the mob was monitoring them, but he had gone off the grid since the credit card incident, permanently she had thought. Plus Stetler said he'd gotten them from a reliable source and someone who was affiliated with the mob would never be considered a reliable source. She had to get her hands on those photos and she had to get them to Dave in the AV Lab, he could find her the information she needed. She exited the ballistic lab and headed down the hall.

* * *

Eric woke; he was in a much nice place than his previous location. He was in what looked like a hospital room. "_They had found me" _he thought. He had IV in his arms and he pain was gone, but he was still weak. His bruises were bandaged and his body was cleaned. He went to sit up in bed, but his body denied him that action. He looked around the room; it was a small room with only two windows one which faced the outside and one which faced the hall of the hospital. It was a single occupation room, he was alone. He looked for the nurse button on the bed. He found it and buzzed it. Shortly after, a female nurse entered the room.

"May I help you, Mr. Delko? Are you in pain or would you like some food?" she asked. He tried to speak, but his voice was dry and raspy and he could manage was a crook. "Do you need water?" the nurse asked.

He nodded. She walked over to a pitcher on a table in the corner of the room and poured a glass. She walked back over to him with the glass and a straw. She handed it to him and with one big gulp he drank the water down. He tried to speak one more, this time he was able to managed words.

"Is there a Calleigh Duquesne here?" he managed to a raspy voice.

"Yes, I'll send her in right away." The nurse said and quickly exited the room. He wasn't sure how much time had passed since the nurse left the room, but he was having trouble keeping his eyes open he was fading in and out of sleep as he waited for Calleigh. Soon he was finding he was unable to keep his eyes opened when someone walked into the room. Before it all fade to black, he saw who enter the room it was a blonde hair woman, but she wasn't Calleigh.

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**Please read and review thanks- Quitethefangirl**


	13. Eye of the Storm

**Author's Notes: **Hey ya'll. I'm updating and I've been working on a new story, two actually. Should I post them or finish my other stories first? I don't know, what do ya'll think? Hungry for more? Any who, fun fact I just have to mention. I've been rewatching CSI: Miami on Netflix particularly Season 6. In the Episode Stand Your Ground when Calleigh is involved in the off duty shooting and I noticed some things. Horatio says that Calleigh was in the line of fire and Calleigh is interrogated by Stetler in a public room, which she mentions. I thought it was interesting and coincidental because they used the name of my story and the interrogation scenes similarity. I know it's so random, but I thought it was cool. Envoy

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13. Eye of the Storm

Horatio didn't receive a call, not one. Not only did he receive no ransom call, he didn't receive any call not even a call out. After this crime spree the Russians had been on as of late, they would typically be called out a minimum three times a day. But there was nothing and as much as the lieutenant liked the idea of a world where there were no call and everyone was safe, he didn't feel this silence in Miami had anything to do with world peace. Something was coming; something that even scared other groups of organized criminals off the street. Something big was coming and it all started with that break in at the armory.

* * *

When Eric woke the room was dark, his mouth was dry and his head was pounding, but he was wide awake. He looked around the room he was in the same place he was before. The relaxation he once felt before was replaced with tension. The woman he had seen before wasn't Calleigh; he saw her face before he faded and he knew something was wrong. He had memorized every inch of the real Calleigh's face, every blemish, every beauty mark and that woman wasn't Calleigh. Their shared similar featured but he saw even through hazy vision that her eyes were not the same piercing blue as Calleigh's and her feature were not as soft or smooth. She also wasn't at his side when he woke, which he was sure the real Calleigh would have been no matter what. He quickly reasoned if she wasn't Calleigh this wasn't a hospital. His conclusion was conformed when he watched the hall for thirty minutes and not one soul walked through it. There was also no being paged and no surrounding noise. _"Where the hell am I?" _Eric thought. He moved in his bed in an attempt to stand, but pain surged through his body.

"ARGH" He groaned loudly in pain. A nurse quickly ran into the room and turned on the lights.

"Mr. Delko is everything ok?" she asked in an elevated tone. "Do you need medicine or water? Are you in pain?"

"I just need my doctor" he croaked "Where is Doctor Flinkle?" he asked pulling the first random name he could think of.

"Doctor Flinkle isn't available today?" The Nurse replied.

"Why?" Eric asked, trying to force the truth from nurse.

"Because he is not available, they don't tell me these things I'm just a nurse." The nurse replied sternly, she wasn't giving up anything. She grabbed the pitcher of water from the nightstand and poured a cup. "Drink this" she handed Eric a glass of water. He noticed the change in tone; she had become defensive and pushy. He grabbed the glass and drank it. Though he was wide awake, his eyes started to droop and the glass started to slip from his hands, the nurse caught as if she was prepared. He looked at her as his eyes closed and saw she was smiling. There was something in the water and she was drugging him. He tried his best to fight the sleep that was over taking him, but the drugs overcome him. His eyes closed and he was almost faded when he the nurse say in a thickly accented voice as she shut off the lights "сладких снов, Mr. Delko" (pronounced sladkikh snoff )

Calleigh tried to busy herself on the IAB office floor. She set in the employee break room and from her seat she had a clear view of Stetler's office and she had been stalking him for the last few hours to no avail. She set alone. She reviewed several analysis and had written five reports, five very long reports and Stetler hadn't left his office. His door was closed and the blinds pulled. "_What was he doing in there?"_ Calleigh thought. Calleigh was too distracted watching Stetler's office she didn't noticed Natalia walking into the room.

"Hey Calleigh, how'd your meeting go?" Natalia said. Calleigh continued to look out the window and didn't answer.

"Hey Cal, you in there?" she said.

"Huh?" Calleigh said snapping out of her trance.

"I was asking how you meeting want, but what are you looking at?" she asked, walking alongside Calleigh and looked out the window. Calleigh hesitated; she didn't know what to say. She couldn't tell Natalia that she was staking out Stetler's office. She had to think of something, but her mind was blank.

"Just…lose…in…thought" she said in a slow distracted manner without breaking her glaze from the office.

"Ok" Natalia said unconvinced. "So how was your meeting?" she asked for the third time.

"Fine" Calleigh said, still distracted, she looked at her watch. She can't stake out Stetler's office any longer. She needed to get back to ballistics lab and run some test, plus she didn't feel comfortable now that Natalia was in the room. "Just fine, hey I got to run." She said without even looking up, she then got up from her chair and exited the room. Natalia looked at her with a surprised expression on her face, she was getting the cold shoulder and she was just trying to be supportive.

"Ok then" She said under her breath and rolled her eyes, but Calleigh was long gone.

* * *

Stetler had been very business in his office and his work was almost done. It was the key to everything. It was the stone to which he would kill two birds. He twirled the tape around in his hand; He placed the tape in the recorder and plugged into in the computer to extract the data. Calleigh would be her own undoing. _"Choke on this, Ms. Duquesne" _he thought as he downloaded the audio file to his computer. When his download was complete, he loaded the file into audio editor. His niece made it look so easy, but editing audio was pretty tricky. After some time Stetler found that the only thing he'd managed to do was frustrate himself to the point that he to pull out his hair. He was going to have to call in a professional. He wasn't going to use his niece, so he tried the next best thing. He pulled out a file and started to flip through. When he found the page he was looking for he picked up the phone and started to dial a number.

"Ron, I need you to find someone who can doctor some audio" he said. Ron replied on the other line." Ok good, how soon can they deliver?" Stetler replied back. Ron answered. "Good, Good I'll send the audio files and instructions." Stetler said then hung up the phone. Stetler smiled, he couldn't be more pleased. Everything was finally coming together; he set in his office and waited for the audio that would be the nail in the coffin.

* * *

**Thanks for reading, leave a review and let me know what you think- Quitethefangirl**


	14. Subtraction and Division

**Author's Note: **This the longest chapter yet. I want camping over the weekend and I brought my laptop cause we had power in our camper, so why not right? It was so inspiring I couldn't stop writing. There something about the wood that help with the writing juices. I even had to break this chapter into two chapters because it was almost 9,000 words. I hope this satisfies some of ya'll questions, but I'm sure there will be more. What can I say I like keeping ya'll on the edge of your chairs. Enjoy

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14. Subtraction and Division

After a few hours of being cooped up in the office, the wait was over. An email titled recording popped up in Stetler's inbox. He opened it and listened to the file. He played it. It was much smoother than the one he tried to edit. There was no choppiness and it sounded as if it hadn't been edited at all. He downloaded the file to his phone and walked over to the window of his office and peered through his blinds. He spotted Natalia in the break room.

"_Perfect timing"_ he thought. Emotions were running high and that was the key ingredients his was going to exploit. Natalia was normally quick to let them rules her decisions without much forethought. That was a volatile mix he depended on to destroy a greatly emotionally weaken Calleigh. He knew the recoding would easily be destroyed in a court, but he didn't need the courts. He only needed Natalia. She would be the judge, jury and executioner and with this recording he was hoping it would be the vehicle for both women's destruct. Further with the disappearance of Eric he couldn't write this more perfectly.

He was about to walk towards the door when he saw Natalia walk over and stand right next to Calleigh. _"Great!" _ He thought with much displeasure. He had to talk to Natalia alone, Calleigh had to go. He looked at Calleigh; she was looking right at him. He backed away from the window. _"Did she see me?"_ he thought.

After a moment of waiting, he went back to the window this time they were both looking at him. He had to be sure they didn't see him. He didn't want them to think he was staking them out; he didn't want them to be suspicious. He waved his arm and much to his relief neither woman reacted. He watched both woman exchange words. Calleigh said something and got up, Natalia turned spoke to Calleigh, but Stetler saw she had already exited the room, Natalia rolled her eyes. Though he couldn't hear a thing he had derived that was some division brewing between them_. _

"_Maybe this is perfect"_ he thought. He waited till he was sure Calleigh was gone and exited the office. He briskly walked over to the break room. Natalia saw him coming and quickly tried to vacate the premises, but she was too late. He caught her at the door of the break room.

"Do you have a moment" he asked.

She let out a big sigh; she was not in the mood for Stetler right now, well she was never in the mood for Rick Stetler.

"No, Rick actually I don't." she said trying to push pass him. Stetler pressed play on the audio on his phone. "What was your relationship with Eric Delko?" Stetler's voice played from the phone, freezing Natalia in her track. Her interest was peaked.

"_What is this?" _she thought. Stetler stopped the audio luring her in. She stepped back and looked at him.

"What is this, Stetler?" she asked aloud this time.

"Something you're going to want to hear." " He stated. He pressed play on his phone and Calleigh voice came from the speaker. "We're involved"

Natalia looked at Stetler, shocked. She wasn't shocked about the relationship; everyone in the office except IAB knew about them. She was shocked because she couldn't believe Calleigh was telling Stetler about it. She couldn't believe her ears; Calleigh was fuelling the fire for her own destruction. Stetler let the audio continue.

"Can you say that you believe that Eric was involved with the Russian mob?" Stetler voice played for the phone.

"Yes, I do believe that. I thinks he's dirty, I didn't trust him. He's involved with the Russian Mob. He is not innocent in my book. He knows the law and he would break it" Calleigh's voice replied. Natalia didn't know how to feel. She couldn't believe Calleigh would say these things. Natalia knew Calleigh loved Eric, how could she say that? She was so confused, she didn't trust Rick Stetler but it was Calleigh's voice. How could she deny this? Natalia looked at Stetler, bewildered. He let the audio continued

"When you shot at the car, did you know Eric was driving?" Stetler voice played from the tape.

"I knew," "Calleigh's voice replied coldly. "I was following protocol, they were trying to flee the scene, I shot him."

"Maybe that's what you tell yourself" Stetler's voice said.

"How dare you? I don't have to account for or explain to you what I do." Calleigh's voice played

Stetler stopped the audio and watched Natalia's face intently. She looked horrified, she looked like she brought.

"It's hard to believe, right? Delko and Duquesne are always so chummy I couldn't believe she would do that" he said offering his own shock to make the story more believable. "But someone that cheerful it's no surprise she has a wicked dark side." He continued.

Natalia just stared at him. She'd known Calleigh for a several years, working on a team with her every day. She couldn't really say she'd seen her complete lost her temper at this level with anyone. Of course she's seen her mad, but it was with in reason. Everyone on the team, her, Eric, Ryan and even Horatio at one time of another would take their anger too far with a suspect, criminal or someone who got in the way of a case, but never Calleigh. She would be the one telling them to back off or settle down. She always kept her cool even with people who didn't deserve it, like with Cooper and the credit card incident and the witness's wife who slapped her in the face when he died on her and Eric's watch. She reacted calmly and dealt with the situation in a profession manner and she didn't care for those people as much as she cared for Eric. His was part of the team, part of the family. They went far back.

"_She wouldn't do that to Eric, she cared too much for him. She would never, but that was her voice_." Her mind was so confused.

Stetler gave Natalia some time to process then continued

"They wonder why we have that fraternization rules. I wonder if she actually believes he's part of the mob or she was still mad about that big argument. She was pretty heated" he added to ensure Natalia completely brought the story.

"What argument?" Natalia asked. Calleigh never mentioned she and Eric had an argument. _"What was he talking about?"_ she thought.

Why would he mention this to Stetler and not to her? She knew Calleigh was a closed book most time, but there were instants were she would open up. There were few and far between, but they had some deep talks on very rare occasions and they were most definitely closer than Calleigh and Stetler. Normally she sassed him when he was drag her into his "meeting" when he felt a rules was violated or something was mishandled. Calleigh hated Stetler with a passion. Why all of a sudden was he becoming the confident of her deepest darkest secrets? Why had she not come to her?

"Well the one they got into before the shooting at the armory occurred." He said in a voice as if she was aware of the fight and he was merely reminding her.

Her face was even more confused and slightly angered. Stetler raveling in this, the hurt that Natalia was hearing this from him and not Calleigh first hand was apparent on her face. Calleigh closed book mentality was the icing of the cake, it was the element that made this fib a raving success. His was on a roll, he couldn't stop now.

"She didn't mention that?" he said, rubbing in, taunting her almost. "Wow, it's the nice ones you have to watch out for, right? First their little sweethearts, always smiling and then next thing you know they got you blowing your brains out in the middle of their ballistics lab. She sure knows how to pick them" he paused and looked at Natalia, square in the eye. She was seething. He continued "and dispose of them. She's got you all fool, shooting Delko was no mistake. She just had no option but get her hands dirty on this one. Who know Ms. Perfect had a dark side, huh?"

Natalia didn't even the question, she was so enraged. She had to hear this from Calleigh herself and without a word she brushing by Stetler. She headed right toward the ballistics lab. Stetler watched her storm off wearing a big smile on his face.

* * *

Eric was in a bind. It hurt to move, but he had to escape. He didn't know where he was but he was definitely not in the company of friends. For the last few hour lay in bed feigning sleep devising a plan. He had to remove himself for this situation. His plan was simple, takedown the nurse and escapes the room. However, it was flawed. He was at a great disadvantage. He was sure if he was being watched via camera or was there just a nurse waiting outside the door? He didn't know. Also once he escaped what was he to expect outside the door? This was obviously not a hospital, so once he exited the room what waited for him outside there could be anything or anyone. Nevertheless, who ever had him in their grasp wanted him alive, why else would they see to his wound and nurse him back to health? And stage a hospital to convince him he was safe? He was 95% sure they wouldn't kill him if he tried to escape, but he wasn't sure how long that would last. So he had to subtract himself from this situation before they decided they would subtract him from the world, permanently. He opened his eyes and began to sit up in bed, he slipped his arm with the IV attached under the blanket and slowly removed the needle. He couldn't risk them drugging him. As he did this, he scoped out the room in part to distract from the discomfort of removing the needle so he could do so in an inconspicuous manner and in part to weigh his options. He surveyed the room for camera that were watching or look for weapons to aid him in his escape. There were no obvious camera, but items that were suspect like the teddy bear from "Calleigh" he noticed on the night stand and a banquet of flowers next to it. He had to remove them, but not set off any red flag just in case they were bugged.

He trying to get off the bed and yell out in pain, just as he did before. He braced himself on the night stand knocking all of its items on the floor and pulling a blanket off the bed, covering them.

"_Hopefully they don't have audio"_ he thought.

However, not one but two nurse ran in, the normal nurse and a male nurse. He thought fast.

"Water, water" he grasped reaching out with one hand and grabbed his neck with the other then started to tremble.

One nurse walked toward the pitcher near the sink and the other went to grab him before he fell. As soon as the one nurse's back was turned Eric stopped the act and quickly grabbed the IV needle and aimed for the nurse's nearest vein. In a rush of adrenalin and streak of sheer luck he hit a vein and pushed the nurse on the bed. He quickly turned the dosage dial up. It didn't seem to have an immediate effect on him and the nurse started fight back. He quickly counteracted the nurse's movement and pinned him on the bed, then proceeded to place him in a carotid chokehold knocking him out. This was not done in a quiet manner and the other nurse turned at the commotion.

She placed the cup of water on the counter. She pulled metal tube from her uniform and opened it revealing a syringe filled with a liquid and headed towards Eric. Eric had rendered the male nurse unconscious and dropped his body to the ground, the whole time starring into the female nurse's eyes. He wasn't backing down. Halfway there she hesitated before closed the gap between them completely and eyed the door, contemplating if she should just escape. This gave Eric the opportunity to jump to his feet and rush her. He caught her midway between turning away from the door and back to looking at him, startling her. He forced her into the sink council; she struggled between his arms as her lower back hit edge of the council, trying to force the syringe into his body anywhere she could. He grabbed her hand stopping her and force it the wall. She dropped the syringe into the sink. They continued to struggle and she managed to turn her body to facing the sink to facing him and they both scrambled for the syringe.

Eric was restraining himself from using his full force on the women as he did with the man, but despite her small frame, she was managing to hold her own much more than he expected. He didn't want to killed her, but only subdue her long enough for him to escape. However, she was leaving him no option, he started to use more force. Neither of them had managed to get a good grip on the syringe, but they had managed to knock the drain stop out of place and the syringe became wedged in the exposed hole partially, needle end facing downwards. Eric tried purge the liquid from the syringe and was somewhat successful, emptying it halfway. The syringe started to fall deeper into the hole, but before it fell in completely the nurse caught it and grabbed it out. She quickly aimed for Eric neck and injected the remaining liquid into his neck.

However, the needle part was no longer attached to the syringe and it dripped in a stream down Eric's neck. Noticing this she quickly reacted by head butting him and jibbing her fingers into one of his wounds, causing him to fall forward. It really hurt, but he ignored it. She slipped from between his arms and run towards the other nurse. He braced himself on the counter and spit some blood in the sink. He grabbed the glass of water, unsure how he planned to use it and turned toward her. He looked at the glass, its base was pretty thick and could do some damage.

She fumbled through the other nurse uniform, searching. She didn't find what she was looking for, but stood to face him as Eric closed the gap.

"You want more" she taunted, beckoning him with her hands in a fight stance. He heard her speak in Russian before she drugged him, but it hadn't registered until now that she was Russian. She had used an American accent she was playing the role of nurse, but it was no longer necessary to keep up the ruse. She spoke with her accent undisguised.

"Russian, huh?" Eric laughed, spitting out more blood out on the floor. He mirrored her stance, ready to fight, yet he held on to the glass. She answered him with some Russian profanity.

"Cute" Eric replied, sarcastically. "Come on, I won't hold back." he said provoking her.

She started at him, when she was closer enough he tossed the water in her face. It only stunned her for only second, but it caused her to stop. She wiped the water from her eyes and laughed.

"You're going to stop with a glass of water?" She continued to laugh. Eric laughed too. Actually he was going to stop her with a glass of water. The water was just the distraction; the glass would do the rest. He was always good a baseball and with his pitching arm he chucked the glass at her. It hit her square in the head, shattering on impact. She staggered forward and started to waiver. Her head slowly began to bleed; she brought her hand up to her head and touched the blood then brought it down to her face to look at it. Eric watched her ready to attack, not sure what was happening. For a short moment she starred at her hand before crumbling to the ground.

Eric stood there, he was a little shocked at the feat he just achieved. He gunshot wounds were not even close to healing and still were causing him great pain, yet he managed to take down two perfectly healthy people.

"_God was really looking out for me"_ he thought, looking up.

He started towards the door. As he did so he surveyed the damage to his person from the fight. It was low; he only received a bussed lip. However, his previous injury had adverse reactions; his wounds had reopened and started bleed through his bandages, a lot. However, besides the instant when the nurse thrust her finger in his wound, he didn't feel much pain. His adrenalin was still in effect. He reached the door and waited, looking and listening. There was nothing, no sound of reinforcement troop, no alarms being sounded, he saw no one. As he lean on the door and he weighed his options. He knew not what waited for him outside the door, it could be far worse than stay in here. On the other hand, his adrenaline rush wasn't going to last forever and he didn't want it to wear off in this room when the two angry nurses came back to. One of the nurses started to groan and he quickly made up his mind. He turned the handle of the door, entering the unknown.

* * *

The doors of the lab flew open as Natalia entered, startling Calleigh. She nearly dropped the gun she was handling; thank God she had the safety on and better yet she'd just unloaded the chamber. As the doors closed the walls of the glass room rattled. Calleigh looked up to be greeted by Natalia, she frowned at her.

"Natalia" Calleigh abruptly "This is a ballistic lab. I could have blown my head off had I dropped this gun and it been loaded."

Natalia said nothing, just crossed her arm under her chest and glared at her. Calleigh looked at her confused; she just shook her head and went back to analyzing the gun. She didn't know what Natalia's deal was, but she didn't have time for this and quite frankly she didn't care. The gun she was analyzing was one of the guns from the trunk of Eric's car. She'd hoped to find some DNA off this gun because they were link to the armory which meant they could be linked to her finding Eric.

After Natalia noticed that Calleigh was going to ignore her, she decided to speak.

"You really don't care?" Natalia said, disgusted.

"Actually I don't" Calleigh said snidely. She shrugged in a blasé manner. She didn't know what she didn't care about, but it didn't involve processing this evidence or finding Eric so she really couldn't care less. Normally she would care about Natalia's emotional meltdown, but she had so much going on already. She couldn't believe she was doing this now. At Calleigh's reply, Natalia's mouth dropped open in outrage.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Rick is right. You've lose it." Natalia said.

Calleigh stopped what she was doing and laughed harshly. Natalia picked the wrong day for this. Calleigh was sick of being accused, she was sick of being badgered and she was sick of playing miss nice girl. It was bad enough she had to deal with this from Rick this morning, she didn't have the patience to deal with it from Natalia. She was someone who should know better, the job was first priority. That was all she was trying to do her job and with all the hindrances she'd had this day she barely made a dent in her workload.

"I've lost it," she said. She pointed at her chest and chuckled ironically. "I've lose it?" she raised her hands as if she was surrendering. "Ok Natalia" she walked toward her, pointing at her as she neared. "You storm into my lab like a mad woman, starring me down. Then you inform me that I've lose, because Rick Stetler said so? And I'm the one who lose it? I didn't have time for this? Get out of my lab" She growled, right in Natalia's face, staring right in the eyes.

Her words hurt Natalia. There was a coldness in her eyes that Natalia had never seen before and the way she spoke to her, there wasn't an ounce of her normal sweetness. It was like she was another person. However, Natalia stood her ground, face to face with Calleigh. She wasn't going to leave she had to hear Calleigh say it herself.

"I heard the recording" Natalia said firmly.

"What?" Calleigh said she wasn't aware of any recording.

"The recording of your meeting with Stetler" Natalia said.

"What? He was recording me?" Calleigh said surprised "You can never trust Rick Stetler. I don't even see why I'm shocked" She shook her head "That is what this is about? What? You didn't like something I said? What can I say it's been an emotional few days," she put her hand to her head, running it through her hair. "I broke. I was sick of playing this stupid charade. I wanted to get this off my chest so I just told the truth, flat out. I'm not going to apologize. Why is that a problem?" she asked, stepping back from her face.

"That was the truth? And you don't see how that is a problem? You see nothing wrong?" Natalia shrieked, pointing in Calleigh's face, angrily.

"I did what I had to do for the team, to protect the team." Calleigh yelled equally as loud, tears in her eyes.

"How is shooting Eric protecting the team, Calleigh? Explain that?" She shouted in her face.

"What?" Calleigh whimpered, taken aback "He said I didn't that?" she seated back from Natalia shaking her head.

"No you said that Calleigh you said. You said you knew it was him" she yelled.

That was when it hit Calleigh, it all made sense. She thought Natalia was angered by something she had said to Stetler, which made no sense because she only said things that were condemning to only her, like confessing Eric's and her romantic relationship. Yet Natalia was angry because apparently she'd confessed on this so call recording that she had shot Eric intentionally. She softened her tone and started to reason with Natalia.

"And you believe that?" Calleigh said in a strained, but soft voice.

"You were recorded, it was your voice. You didn't even know he was recording your little heart to heart. You that Stetler would let you disburse your deepest blackest secrets and he could be trust with them? You shot the only person you so call trust and you go straight to confuse this to Rick? Are none of us worthy of your honesty that you go running to Stetler your enemy instead?" Natalia's yelling was getting louder.

Calleigh looked out the glass walls. Today really made Calleigh really hated that this lab was made of glass, some of the night shift CSI who were helping with the case and the labs tech watched the dispute from the adjacent labs.

"I didn't say that, I don't know what this recording is saying, but I was there I know what I said. I was there. Stetler is playing you." Calleigh saidin shaky voice. "I have been honest with you"

"Well you didn't mention that you and Delko were in an argument the day of the shooting" She shot back.

"It wasn't an argument, we were discussing a case. We disagreed. That was it." She said gently reaching out to touch Natalia arm. Natalia jerked away.

"Don't patronize me," she said jerking from her grasp "That proves nothing. You want to be honest, what was the 'disagreement' about?"

"I told him his father was involved in Sarnoff's escape and he should distance himself, he didn't agree. He didn't listen." She said sadly, looking down.

"I don't believe you" Natalia hissed.

"Well that is the truth, Natalia" Calleigh yelled back losing her cool once more

"If you're telling the truth, Calleigh what are you connection in this? Your hands are not clean" Natalia yelled.

Natalia really didn't trust her. She expected Stetler not to trust her. She expected Stetler to call her a dirty cop, but she didn't expect this from Natalia. Calleigh always had her back, especially when Stetler was on a witch hunter to accuse her of the murder of ex-husband Nick Townsend. How could she believe these things? Stetler accusation when mere cherry punch to the pain the Natalia's words held.

"Listen to yourself," Calleigh angrily, she pleaded to her, pointing at herself. "I'm not involved in this. I didn't know it was Eric when I shot. How could I? Why would I shot Eric?" She cried.

"Because you couldn't get him to do it himself? Like John?" Natalia yelled.

Then Calleigh lose it, her hands moved fast that her mind, slapping Natalia across the face, hard. Tear in her eye she exited the Ballistics lab she couldn't do this.

* * *

**I'll update as soon as I finish the other half of this chapter which should be next week hopefully. Please review and thanks for reading -Quitethefangirl**


	15. Addition and Mutiplication

**Author Notes: **I'm engaged YAY! I'm super excited and the ring my fiance picked is perfect. Other than that awesome news, work had been crazy busy, like really crazy. Since I last posted I've had 7 days off including weekends and I normally have weekends off. So I lied I was crazy to think I'd have this chapter posted a few days after I posted last. So I'm going to reframe from using timelines in the future unless they are absolutes so I won't make a lair of myself. I thought since school was over I'd have more time, but it hasn't been the case. Between work, wedding planning, video games and work related events (we had a photo shoot that was extra fun) I've managed to write some here and there, but yesterday I went to Louisiana via plane and I wrote on the plane and when I got here. Vacation does wonders for my fanfiction writing and finally after almost two months I'm done with this chapter. I think y'all will like it and it's extra long like a said last chapter. Enjoy

* * *

**15. Addition and Multiplication**

Calleigh was livid. She hadn't been this mad in a long time. It wasn't like this week hadn't been a totally nightmare already, but it seemed that every day it was getting worse. Today was a total disaster, it was the most stressful day yet and she wasn't looking forward tomorrow. As she exited the lab her tears of betrayal quickly turned to steaming fury. As she walked away she had initially intended to head home.

"_I shouldn't have worked today, I'm in no shape to be around other people" _she thought as she headed to the locker room.

However, by the time she reached her locker she was so heated. She decided that she wasn't going to leave; she was going to confront Stetler.

"_Why not now?"_ she thought ironically as she threw her belonging back into the locker and heading to Stetler's office. It wasn't like she hadn't destroyed her image enough. The image of control and calmness that had taken years for her to build was seemingly obliterated in one day. She had slapped Natalia across the face; she slapped her as other CSI and lab techs watched. It wasn't like Boa Vista didn't deserve it. It just wasn't the way a supervisor should behave. She hadn't really let herself think about it till now, but the damage control that was ahead of her was going to be great.

"_What was done was done"_ she thought. She may as well give Stetler a piece of her mind too. She was sure news would make its way to Stetler and in the morning she'd be subjected to yet another one of Stetler's meetings. She decided that she may so well let him have it, who knew she might just slap him in the face. Why not give him more material to use against her in tomorrow's impending meeting?

* * *

Eric opened the door and stepped out. He found himself in a poorly lit hallway. There was only one light directly over the window of the room he was in and one every 5 feet. They were incandescent light and they gave off a warm yellow hazy glow. The hall wasn't very long about 20 or so feet. The walls made of cider block; it reminded Eric of the tunnel of a sports stadium. There were gray cement floor that matched the color of the cider block walls. It was eerie and cool in the hall like a basement, but this is Miami- Dade County virtually no one had basements. Plus it didn't have a basement's dimness. The coolness was more than like coming from an air system, Eric could hear a dripping that was evidence of that. There were a three other doors Eric could see, two on the opposite wall of the room his just exited and three his right, one on the same side, it was further from him. The door on the same side was pretty much in the corner of the hall and judging from how big the room his had just exited the door had to open was a small room that was probably just a closet of some sort. He decided he'd check the other doors that were more spaced apart on the other side. As he limbed towards the closest door he noticed there were plaque on each door that labeled what was behind, this made his job easier. Before he was too far he looked back at the room he just exited and read the plaque, it read infirmary.

"_Maybe this isn't as an elaborate hoax as I thought; they didn't set up that room to trick me it really is just an infirmary" _he thought.

This made him feel a little less safe, but he continued his quest of getting out of here. He had to see Calleigh again. He could slowly feel his adrenaline wearing off and the pain creeping back. He turned his mind to thoughts of Calleigh to distract him from the pain and give him something to look forward to, something to live for to give him the courage and reason to fight to escape where ever he was. It saddened him that the last moment he spent with her they were involved in an argument. He had to escape; he had to make it right, even if it was only long enough to tell her he was sorry and that he loves her.

He neared the door and read the plaque it said locker room.

"_There is an infirmary and locker room this must be a gym of some sort." _He thought as he continued to the locker door. It was his best bet. In his experience most locker rooms had two entrances, one entrance from a common part like a hall of lobby and an entrance from a workout area or swimming pool.

He opened the locker room door slowly and crept in. He was faced with a dark gray tiled privacy wall. He walked to the edge of the wall and peered in. He couldn't see much, the wall was shaped in a J and there was a wall blocked he view directly in front of him. However, adjacent to the wall he could see lockers and straight across there was an arch way that exposed a bathroom. From his view he could see some urinals and some stall. The walls of the bathroom extended back some and he reasoned that the other door he saw in the hall more than likely lead to this bathroom.

"_Not the exit I was hoping for, but good to know there another door in case I need it to escape"_ he thought.

The locker room was much more inviting than the hall, yet the drab color scheme continued.

It reminded him of something Calleigh said when he took her with him to shop for paint for niece's bedroom one day. She had picked out two bright pink colors and showed them to him. He told her one color looked as if Nicki Minaj was murdered and someone sold her blood as paint and the other looked like cotton candy vomit.

"Little girls like those colors" she laughed.

"Why didn't they like grays?" he said waving a color card of grays card he had in his hand.

"Really?" Calleigh laughed "We are not painting a man cave, hon."

"Isn't your room this color?" he said pointing at a light gray on the card.

"No, what? That's a bachelor colors" Calleigh said scrunching her face and shaking her head, smiling. Eric remembered how her blond her cascaded as she did so and smiled.

"Bachelor colors? Are you saying woman don't use these color?" he asked.

"No I'm not saying that, but think of all the straight single man you know and what are the color of the rooms in their house?" she pointed at the card and continued "they are all more than likely color from this card"

Eric nodded in agreement. Calleigh continued

"And the their lack of feminine touch is probably evident in lack of non-sports related and only functional décor makes them bachelor colors" she laughed "Also my walls are a light violet, you should know this you've in my bedroom several times" she added

"Yes" he agreed sly "and all those times I was too distracted to paying attention to the walls." He deviously smiled making Calleigh blush.

As much as he liked distracting himself with thoughts of Calleigh, he snapped back to the present task at hand, his escape. However, he thought about what Calleigh said; there was definitely a lack of feminine touch, all the furniture and décor serviced a purpose and the wall had only plaque descripting competitions won. He also remembered that outside the door it was only marked locker room and not to a specific gender.

"_This has to be specialty gym, one that would be utilized by predominately male patrons" _he thought.

After listening and waiting he decided that the coast was clear and he moved over to jiuo/;jkl,,;'lrb ,fthe walls directly in front of him. He pressed his back to the wall and inched slowly toward the edge. Upon reached the edge he hesitated and took a few deep breaths then looked. He quickly pulled his head back, there was someone there. In the center of the room was some sort of Jacuzzi or something and there was someone in it. He stood there breathing heavily rethinking his next course of action.

* * *

It was a bad taste in Natalia's mouth. She couldn't decide if it was the blood in her mouth or the words she spoke only a few moments prior. She regretted them as soon as they left her mouth; she let her anger with Calleigh get the best of her, even if she said those things on the recording she didn't deserve to be treated like that. As she watched the blond storm off with tear filled eyes in a mad fiery, she thought about what she'd done. She was still mad with her, but she now knew she was out of line to blame John's suicide on her. She wasn't even there when it went down she had no right to mention that. She was listening to heresy for Rick Stetler, Rick Stetler for God's sake. His recording was convincing, but in retrospect maybe she should have investigated it a little more. Everyone knew you couldn't take anything from Rick Settler at face value.

Natalia held her head down. She hated that this lab was made of glass. She knew all her fellow lab colleagues were staring at her though she had managed to avoid eye contact with them; despite that she could feel their glares burning through her skin. She walked to the door of the ballistics lab with her head hung low and walked out. She put her hand to her face. Her face stung from both embarrassment and pain.

As she exited she tried her best to downplay the effects of the slap and act as if it unfazed her. However, Calleigh didn't hold back when she slapped her and she had a mean back hand. Calleigh's instant reaction had caught Natalia off guard causing to bit down on her tongue, hard. Her mouth filling with blood and her tongue hurt something ferocious. The metallic taste was overwhelming, but she refused to spit due to the fact the she was trying to disguise the intensity of the blow and lack of opportunity to do so discreetly. She made her way down the halls in silence, her eyes to the ground. After dread-filled eternity she had finally made it to the end of the hall and turned the corner. She was letting out a sigh of relief as she turned the corner when she smack right into someone.

"Whoa" the person said.

The collision made Natalia hit the floor. She looked up it to be greeted by a man she had never seen before.

"I'm so sorry" the man said sticking out his hand to help her from the floor and offered a smile.

"Yeah I'm sorry too." she mumbled. She got up briskly, ignoring his helpful gesture. He retracted his hand.

Standing Natalia was able to get a better look at the man. He was a Latino man; roughly six feet something tall and he had black hair with piercing black eyes to match. She also noticed he was wearing a lab coat that had the J. Cardoza embroidered above the pocket. He was very attractive and had circumstances been different she would have been more than happy to have ran into this men.

"_Who is this man? Definitely not from the night shift, much too cheery and awake."_ She thought. She stared at him confused for a couple seconds more then continued on her way to the restroom. _"Whatever I don't have time for this." _She thought as she hurriedly brushed passed him and continued on her way. However, much to her surprise the man started to follow her.

"Didn't mean to knock you down there, I was kind of blazing my way through the lab. I guess I'm excited to be getting to work. I'm Jesse Cardoza. The new addition to the team" He said sticking his hand out once more. This time Natalia shook it and he smiled at her as they exchanged the gesture. As they shook hands, he hesitated for a moment for Natalia to introduce herself but she didn't. She just nodded and kept to walk. So he continued to talk.

"I'm new, well kind of. I wasn't supposed to start until the end of the month, but I was asked to start early with the shooting and the team being down a few CSI. I want to help in any way possible." He said in one breath as he did his best to match Natalia's pace as he followed behind her. She expected that this man wasn't going to stop following her so she stopped in her tracks and faced him. She faced him and was greeted by a sympathetic smile. She gave the man a "Can I help you?" expression as she elevated both brows. She didn't want to be rude to the man on his first day, but quite frankly she wasn't in the mood for this pointless chit chat and he had yet to justify why he was following her. He took the hint.

"Um" he said awkwardly, unsure of way he was getting the silent treatment for this lady. "I'm looking for Lieutenant Caine. He wasn't in his office. Have you seen him around?" He asked.

She had managed to be nonverbal thus far, but now there was no escape. He had asked a direct question, she couldn't just ignore him. Natalia mouth was filled with a mixer of blood and saliva, she didn't want to swallow. She did her best to clear her teeth of the blood that cover them and swallowed and after too long of a moment of silence she was just about to open her mouth to speak when she was saved by a familiar voice.

"Ma'am, Jesse" she heard Horatio's voice say from behind them. They both turned to face the Lieutenant who had seemingly appeared out of thin air as he always did. "I hear your looking for me?" he said sticking his out to Jesse, they shook hands.

"Yes" Jesse replied in a relieved voice.

"Thanks so much for reporting early, we can really use the reinforcement and fresh eyes." Horatio said warily. Much like the rest of the team, Horatio had gotten much rest in the past few days. Horatio continued to spoke. "I see you've meet Natalia Boa Vista, you two are going to be working together so she can get you up to speed on details of the shooting."

"_Great"_ Natalia thought sourly, she looked at Jesse and noticed he had a similar look of displeasure of his face.

"You will also be working with Calleigh Duquesne. I want to introduce you to her but I just walked by her lab and she wasn't there" he was interrupted by his phone beeping and he looked down at it and reading a message. "Um Natalia, do you mind helping Jesse locate her and introducing the two of them. I have to look into something" before she had the chance to reply Horatio he had vanished just as he appeared and she found herself alone with Jesse once more.

* * *

Calleigh had made a b line to Stetler's office only to be greeted by a locked door.

"_Wow, apparently he feels it necessary to lock the door to his office in a police department. He must really have something he wants to hide."_ She thought angrily as she jingled the knob to the locked door.

All the locked doors she could think of in the whole department that where locked for security reasons like doors to the lab in civilian areas, the holding areas, the evidence locker and the gun vault doors. His was the only personal office she encountered that was ever locked. She noted this for the future. She still needed to get her hands on those pictures, but now there were other pressing matters. She had to find Stetler. She jiggled the door once more in frustration and peered through the blinds. The room was dark and everything was seemingly shut down. He wasn't here. She scanned the surrounding offices and he was nowhere in sight. She spotted the men's restroom and swiftly walked over to it and walked in. The door banged open in her wake causing the two officers occupying the bathroom look up. The one stood by the sink washing his hands and the other was using the urinal. They both looked at her uncomfortably and the one by the urinal quickly turned as if to shield himself. Not that the Calleigh noticed, soon as she made sure neither man was Stetler it was as if they were invisible to her.

"Stetler? Rick Stetler? Are you in here?" she said in an angry rage as she headed to the stalls. "Rick?" she said as kicked the doors of the stalls open.

The other occupants of the restroom stared at her in shock and slightly confusion. They looked at each other and shrugged unsure what was going on or what to do. Calleigh opened all the stalls, but there was no Stetler. She stood there, in front of the last stall of the roll, huffed and puffed. One of the men started to approach her. When he was close, he cautiously with his arm stretched toward her and placed it on her shoulder.

"Are you O-"He started with a deeply concerned look on his face. Calleigh quickly turned around before he could finish and removed his hand off her shoulder.

"I'm fine, don't touch me" she snapped at the man then stormed out of the restroom.

Her blood was boiling, she couldn't think straight. She was starting to get a headache and her vision was blurred, but she wasn't going to give up. She had to find Stetler and give him a piece her mind. This time he wanted to far, she couldn't hold it back anymore. All the anger that she ever held back seemed to be bubbling to the surface and Stetler was going to be the one it was going to be dump on. He definitely deserve it too, there were a great supply of moments when she held her tongue with Stetler and there was no one else who deserved to be subjected to this venting more than Rick. She quickly looked all around the lab, but she couldn't find him. _"He must be gone"_ she thought. She walked to the lobby and she headed straight to the receptionist desk.

"Have you seen Rick?" she said bluntly.

Amanda, the receptionist looked up at Calleigh, startled. She looked at Calleigh and farrowed her brows.

"Hey, are you ok?" she said. The fact that Calleigh didn't greet her didn't go unnoticed and also noted that her voice didn't sound like her normal cheer self. Her face was really red and was covered with a thin layer of glossy perspiration, something was up.

"Nothing, I'm fine" she snapped a little. Amanda looked at her, shocked. Calleigh noticed and quickly felt remorseful. Amanda didn't deserve her rudeness.

"I'm sorry, I had a terrible day, but it wasn't any of your doing. I apologize." She said.

Amanda smiled sympathetically

"It's ok, I totally understand. It's been a tough week for us all, we loss some good men." She said place her hand on Calleigh supportively. She noticed Calleigh winced when she said loss and felt she needed to clarify what she meant by loss and that she didn't include Eric in that group. "They're going to find him, Calleigh. They're going to find him, alive." She said squeeze her hand in reassurance.

"Thanks" Calleigh said, smiling tightly and squeezing her hand back as she tried her best not to cry.

For a moment the woman stayed like that til Calleigh remember she had to find Stetler. Though she was temporally distracted she was still harboring pointed words for him. So she pulled away and asked her question again.

"So have you seen Rick? It's really important I talk to him." She said.

"Yeah he left out the door a few minutes ago, if you quick you may be able to catch" she said, having to yell the last bit because as soon as Calleigh heard his location she was out the door after him.

In the parking lot, she stood at the top of the stairs and scanned the employee parking lot for him. She raked mind to remember what kind of car he drove, but all she could remember was that it was a black sedan and the lot of full black sedans. After having no success from her perch on the stairs her started to walking through the lot and look between the cars. She was about to call it quits when she spotted him in the adjacent lot for the county cars chatting it up with a few officer. She had him now.

* * *

Ryan was at the lab to deal with suspension business and if that wasn't bad enough the employee lot was packed and all the visitor spot were filled as well. He had just managed to find a spot when he saw Calleigh emerge from the build. He waved and smiled at her, but she didn't even reaction. He waved again, but still nothing. She was looking for someone and it was obviously not him. He had decided to just park and catch her on the way in when she walked down the stair and right passed his car. That was when he saw her face. Something was wrong, the expression said it all. He'd only seen it a few times before and he knew who ever was on the other side of the expression was in trouble. Calleigh had one of the sweetest demeanors he could think of, but when she was mad she could lose her grip just like any other human. On top of that with Eric missing and all the worry, pressure and stress in finding him and catching the mob, Ryan didn't know what to expect.

"_To hell with this suspension bs"_ he thought.

He had to stop her before she did anything she would regret. So he quickly turned his car down the lanes she was on and followed her. They didn't need any more people getting suspended

"Calleigh, CAL, CAL" he yelled from his car, but she kept going, scanning the lot.

"This is not good" he murmured to him.

He weighed his options; she was apparently ignoring him or couldn't even hear, so talking her down wasn't an option, so he had to think of another plan and fast, but he couldn't think of any other options that didn't involve force so he had no options. However, she stopped in her track and started to walk back.

"Great, she thought the better of it" he sighed relieved.

He started to pull up next to her when he noticed she had stopped and was looking across to the next lot. He followed her gaze. She was looking dead straight at Rick Stetler. Her target was acquired. She quickly began to maneuver between the cars.

"Crap, crap, crap" Ryan panicked, trying to think of what to do. He swiftly turned the corner and raced down the row Calleigh was now in and speed down it. She was just about to emerge from the between cars when Ryan pulled up and cut her off with his cars. This made Calleigh jump back quickly, just missing the cars and scream.

"Dammit, Ryan what the hell?" She yelled looking at him, slamming her hand down on his hood. She then quickly looked back at Stetler and Ryan saw her eyes narrow. Her voice was apparently carried because Stetler looked over at the two of them and waved with an arrogant smile on his face. Seeng this Ryan quickly got out of the car and grabbed Calleigh by the arms, roughly and guided her to the cars as she protested.

"Get your hands off of me" she said pulling away from him, but slowly she started to lose her well to struggle as they progressed to the car til she stopped resisting entirely. He helped her in the passenger seat of the car as she loses it and burst into tears. Ryan put his car in drive and they sped out of the lot and onto the highway.


End file.
